110 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A. L. V. Manniche (1910), on his explorations in northeastern 

 Greenland, found two nests " on the slopes of the low rocks by the 

 coast not far from the mouth of the river. The fresh down and 

 eggshells proved that they had lately been inhabited." Again he 

 states that the king eider — 



always stayed in the fresh waters on the mainlaud, on which it undoubtedly 

 exclusively nests. I did not succeed in finding nests with eggs, but all the old 

 nests I found at Stormkap proved that this bird nests singly. The nests were 

 placed on the lower slopes, with luxuriant vegetation, or on small hills in the 

 lowland, with large stones surrounded by grass. None of the observed nests 

 were far from the bay (as a maximum 1 kilometer). 



According to Kev. C. W. G. Eifrig (1905), this species breeds com- 

 monly on the islands north of Hudson Bay and " places its soft, 

 down-lined nest on tussocks of grass along the shores and on islands 

 of inland ponds." 



In northern Greenland Mr. Ekblaw noted that : 



About July 1 the breeding season is at its height. In one day's tramp over 

 the lake-dotted valleys about North Star Bay I saw some 20 pairs swimming 

 about the ponds or resting on the grassy banks, feeding on the abundant life 

 of the pools, preening their feathers, or sleeping either on land or water with 

 their bills tucked under their wings. The birds were all paired. The females 

 were very shy, indeed, and both females and males were shier than the old- 

 squaws and common eiders. 



The nests are placed at some distance from the pools ; the nearest I found 

 was about 200 yards from any water and 2 miles from the sea ; the farthest 

 at least a mile from any pool and 4 miles from the sea. Some of the nests 

 were concealed in the sedges and grasses of the wet swales, usually on a hum- 

 mock ; some were placed in small hollows in the gravel of old glacial moraines. 

 The nest is well-lined with down, much lighter in color than the down from the 

 oldsquaws, and somewhat lighter than the down from the common eiders. 



Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain writes to me as follows : 



It is very remarkable that, although the king eider is found in fair numbers 

 in several districts in Spitsbergen, hardly anything was known as to its breed- 

 ing habits there until quite recently. The reason seems to be that it was 

 surmised that its breeding habits were similar to those of the common eider, 

 whereas they are really very different. While the common eider generally 

 nests in thickly populated colonies on low flat islands in the fjords or off 

 the coast, the king eider prefers to nest among the moss and lichen-covered 

 expenses of flat tundra on the mainland. Instead of 100, or several hundred, 

 nests being found crowded together on an acre or two of ground, the female 

 king eiders are scattered over the tundra, perhaps half a mile of monotonous 

 moorland intervening between the nests, and, as tliey squat closely in the moss, 

 in most cases they are invisible till approached within a few yards. On the 

 eider holms, too, the drakes, with their boldly contrasted plumage of black and 

 wliite, stand close to the hens and always accompany them when they leave 

 the nest to wash and feed, while, on the other hand, the male king eiders are 

 never seen in the vicinity of the nest, but after the ducks have begun to sit 

 they congregate in flocks and haunt the open fjords. When the young are 



