BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 



147 



NORTHERN EIDER {Somateria mollissima borealis) . 



Length. — 23 inches. 



Adult. — Almost similar in size and coloration to Eider; less greenish on 

 sides of head along border of black cap; frontal processes narrower and 

 more acute than in the Eider; general upper outHne of bill more nearly 

 straight; when in hand the male may be distinguished from that of 

 our Eider by the soUd black cap which, in the Eider, is divided behind 

 in the center by a white line; the breast is sometimes tinted with pink. 

 The female differs as much from the male as does that of the Eider 

 which it resembles (see Eider p. 148), but like the female of the King 

 Eider it has two white wing-bars. 



Season. — A rare straggler in winter; latter part of October to April. 



Range. — Northeastern North America. Breeds from Ellesmere Land and 

 both coasts of Greenland south to northwestern Hudson Bay and 

 southern Ungava; winters in southern Greenland and south rarely to 

 Massachusetts. 



History. 



This is a North American race of the common Eider of 

 Europe {S. mollissimd) and is 

 almost identical with it. Prob- 

 ably it formerly occurred not un- 

 commonly off our coast, and may 

 yet appear here very rarely, as it 

 nests on islands off the northern 

 coast of Labrador and is a rare 

 visitor on the Maine coast. It is 

 rated as rare at Nantucket (Howe 

 and Allen), which is believed to 

 be about its southern limit. It 

 may be readily distinguished from 

 the common Eider when in hand 

 by a difference in shape of the 

 processes of the bill, as shown in 

 Fig. 9. 



This bird furnishes much of 

 the eiderdown that is gathered by 

 the Greenlanders, and it is not improbable that it was one 

 of the species sought by the feather hunters on the coast of 

 Labrador in the eighteenth century. 



FiQ. 9. — Bills of Eiders, one-quarter 

 natural size, viewed from above and in 

 profile. Upper right hand and middle 

 figure represent the Eider; the others the 

 Northern Eider (after Sharpe) . 



