LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 107 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Coasts of northwestern America and northeast- 

 ern Asia. East to Coronation Gulf and west to Cape Irkaipij, 

 Siberia. South on both coasts of Bering Sea to the Commander and 

 Aleutian Islands, and eastward along the south side of the Alaskan 

 Peninsula to Kodiak Island and Cook Inlet (Chugachick Bay). 

 North to Banks Land (Cape Kellett) and Victoria Land (Walker 

 Bay). It may intergrade with horealis at the eastern extremity of 

 its breeding range, in the vicinity of 100° west longitude. 



Winter range. — Mainly in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands and 

 the Alaska Peninsula, extending but little south of its breeding range 

 and north as far as open water extends, sometimes as far as the Dio- 

 mede Islands. 



Sjxnng inigration. — Early dates of arrival: Alaska, Point Hope, 

 April 15; Point Barrow, May 16; and Demarcation Point, May 26; 

 northeastern Siberia, May 28. Usual date of arrival at St. Michael, 

 Alaska, is from May 10 to 20. 



Fall migration. — Birds which breed in Coronation Gulf leave in 

 September and migrate about 2,000 miles. Last seen at Point Bar- 

 row November 4. 



Casual records. — Has wandered as far south on the Pacific coast 

 as Washington (Tacoma, January 6, 1906), and has been recorded a 

 number of times in the interior of Canada, as follows : Severn House, 

 1858 ; Fort Eesolution, 1861 ; Fort Good Hope, June 14 and 30, 1904 ; 

 and Manitoba (Giroux, November 11, 1911, and Lake Manitoba, 

 October 23, 1911). 



Egg dates. — Arctic Canada : Thirty records, June 6 to July 15 ; 

 fifteen records, July 2 to 8. Alaska : Sixteen records, June 10 to July 

 12 ; eight records, June 20 to 29. 



SOMATERIA SPECTABILIS (Linnaeus) 

 KING EIDER 



HABITS 



Although generally regarded as one of the rarer ducks and al- 

 though comparatively few naturalists have ever seen it in life, this 

 beautiful and showy species is astonishingly abundant in certain por- 

 tions of its northern habitat. Among the vast hordes of wild fowl 

 which migrate in the spring from Bering Sea, through the straits, 

 to their Arctic summer homes the king eider takes a prominent and 

 a conspicuous place, as the following observations by Mr. John Mur- 

 doch (1885), at Point Barrow, will illustrate: 



This is by all means the most abundant bird at Point Barrow. Thousands 

 hardly describes the multitudes which passed up during the great migrations, 

 within sight of the station, and yet equally great numbers passed up along the 



