152 SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA. 



Length to end of tail 24 inches ; extent of wings 38 ; 

 wing from flexure 11^; tail 4; bill along the ridge 2-Jj ; 

 tarsus 1^*2 > middle toe and claw 2\^. 



Variations. — The males vary little in colour, but con- 

 siderably in size ; the extremes of length in those which I 

 have examined being 24^ and 27, those of extent of wings 39 

 and 42. The females vary in colour nearly as much as the 

 " Red Grouse," the dark tints of the back shading betw^een 

 brownish-black and dark brown, the light tints between 

 brownish-white and yellowish-red. The tail-feathers are 

 generally much worn, and their tips broken in summer. 



Habits. — The Eider Duck or Goose, as it has been vari- 

 ously called, is reported by travellers and voyagers to be very 

 abundant in the arctic regions of both continents, on the 

 coasts of Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Labrador, and to 

 occur, in diminished numbers, some degrees farther south- 

 ward. It is not unfrequent along the shores of the northern 

 parts of Scotland, the Hebrides, Shetland and Orkney Islands, 

 In the outer Hebrides are many places in which it breeds, 

 although nowhere in great numbers. The same may be said 

 of Shetland and Orkney, and some occur in summer about 

 the Bass Rock, and even on the Fern Islands, on the coast of 

 Northumberland. They betake themselves to their breeding 

 places in the beginning of May. The eggs are deposited in 

 the end of that month or the beginning of June. It has been 

 alleged by some that the males leave the females after incu- 

 bation commences, and this is true to a certain extent, for 

 the males having nothing to do with that process, do not 

 remain constantly with the females, but engage in their 

 ordinary pursuits, often collecting into flocks of a few or 

 many individuals, although they remain in the neighbouring 

 parts, and occasionally visit their mates, or at least are seen 

 on shore near them. The nest is usually made in a superfi- 

 cial cavity in the turf, and is composed of sea-weeds and 

 Avithered grass, together with various maritime plants, as 

 Statice Armeria and Plantago maritima and Coronopus. The 

 eggs, which vary from five to eight, are of a longish oval 



