148 SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA. 



angles less elevated aud sliorter ; the head and nech pale 

 redd{sh-broiv7i, finely streaked icith dusky ; the lower parts 

 similarly coloured, hut with the markings transverse, and the 

 ground colour passing gradually into dusky hrown; the upper 

 parts dark hroion, transversely lunulated with light red. 

 Young nearly similar to the female. 



Male in Summer. — The Common or White-backed Eider, 

 although remarkable for the beauty of its plumage, is what 

 may, without much impropriety, be called a very clumsy 

 bird. Its body is bulky, much depressed, and of an ellip- 

 tical form ; the neck of moderate length ; the head large, 

 oblong, and compressed. 



The bill is nearly as long as the head, higher than broad 

 at the base, depressed tOAvard the end, where it is consider- 

 ably narrowed, but rounded ; the upper mandible with the 

 lateral sinus very large and rather pointed, the upper sinus 

 vei*y long and narrow ; the frontal angles very long, narrow, 

 soft, and tumid, as is the ridge as far as the nostrils, and 

 marked with oblique divergent lines ; the dorsal outline 

 nearly straight and sloping to the unguis, which is extremely 

 large, elliptical, convex, and moderately decurved, with a 

 thick grooved edge, the ridge broad, slowly narrowed, and 

 becoming more convex ; the sides sloping, the edges margi- 

 nate, scrobiculate externally, with about fifty internal 

 lamellae, the outer ends of which do not project, but are 

 marked by a series of external scrobiculi ; nasal sinus narrow 

 elliptical, sub-basal ; lower mandible with the intercrural 

 space long, rather wide, pointed, and partially bare ; the 

 outline of the crura nearly straight, their sides gradually 

 more inclined outwards, the edges with about sixty external 

 lamellae; the unguis very large, broadly elliptical, little 

 convex. 



The mouth is an inch in width ; the anterior palate 

 concave. The tongue, two inches in length, is fleshy, very 

 thick, with a deep median groove, two lateral series of 

 bristles, and a semicircular, thin-edged, sub-cartilaginous 

 tip. The oesophagus, eleven inches long, one inch in width, 

 enlarges on the lower part of the neck to an inch and two- 



