342 Field Museum of Natural History — Zoology, Vol. IX. 



by Mr. Julius Hurter. (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 1881, p. 124.) "It 

 is found throughout Illinois in winter and has been taken at St. Louis, 

 Mo." (W. W. Cooke, Bd. Migr. Miss. Val., 1888, p. 73.) 



Genus SOMATERIA Leach. 



6L Somateria dresseri Sharpe. 

 American Eider Duck. 

 Distr.: Atlantic coast of North America, from Maine to Labra- 

 dor, south to Delaware and west to the Great Lakes in winter. 



Adult male: Top of head, black, with a stripe of white on the 

 middle of the crown; occiput, pale green, the color extending on the 



sides of the neck; rest 

 of head, breast and back, 

 white, faintly tinged 

 with dull pinkish on 

 the breast; rest of the 

 under parts, black; tail, 

 black; point of the di- 

 vided culmen extending 

 upon the forehead, blunt 

 and rounded. 

 Adult female: General color, pale rufous brown, mottled and 

 banded with black; head, tawny brown, faintly lined and dotted with 

 black; some of the secondaries tipped with white. 



Length, about 23; wing, about 11; tarsus, 1.75; bill, 2.10. 

 The American Eider Duck closely resembles the Northern Eider, 

 the principle difference being in the shape of the divided culmen, the 

 points of which are broad and rounded,' and not pointed as in the 

 latter species. The Northern Eider, however, has not as yet been 

 recorded from the Lake Michigan region, although it occurs commonly 

 in Hudson Bay. 



A rare resident on Lake Michigan in winter. A young male bird 

 of this species was shot by a fisherman on the Lake front in Chicago, 

 Dec. I, igo8. The specimen was purchased by Mr. J. L. DeVine who 

 kindly loaned it to me for examination. 



" Not a very rare winter resident upon Lake Michigan and prob- 

 ably occurs in suitable places throughout the state. In my collection 

 is an immature specimen obtained near Chicago, in December, 1874." 

 (Nelson, Birds N. E. 111., 1876, p. 142.) "Lake Michigan in winter, 

 rare. Recorded at Racine in winter, 1875, by Dr. Hoy. Two spec- 

 imens were also taken at Milwaukee and were preserved in the Public 

 Museum. The only positive record for the interior that we are aware 



