342 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



Genus SOMATERIA, Boie. 



EIDEE DUCK. 



Somateria mollissima (Liniic^us). ;S'.iV., i., p. 198 



(176G). 



The Eider Duck may be considered as an accidental 

 visitor to the coast of Kent in ver}^ severe weather. 



Boys includes it in the Birds of Sandwich, 1792, under 

 the name of " Eider Goose." There is a female obtained 

 in Kent in the Maidstone Museum, from Mr. G. 

 Simmons' collection, and Mr. G. Dowker says " an Eider 

 Duck in the Canterbury Museum was, I believe, from 

 the neighbourhood." 



KING DUCK. 



Sonateria spectahilis (Linnaeus). >S'.A^., i., p. 195 

 (1766). 



Mr. OHver V. Aplin, in the Zoologist, 1886, p. 835, 

 writes : "In the University Museum at Oxford there are 

 examples of two rare British birds, of which I can find 

 no mention in the Handbook of British Birds, or the last 

 edition of Yarrell's British Birds, it may, therefore, 

 be worth while to place them on record in the pages of 

 the Zoologist. An adult male King Duck is labelled 

 ' Erith Keach, Kent. Presented by Lord Saye and 

 Sele.' This specimen formed part of a collection of 

 British birds bequeathed by the late Lord Saye and Sele 

 to the Ashmolean Museum in 1847, and was labelled in 

 that collection ' Shot in Erith Beaches, Kent.' " 



