STELLER'S EIDER. 65 



neck, scapulars, inner secondaries, flanks, and under parts 

 white, the rest of the plumage brownish black, the most notice- 

 able mark being the large oval brown patch on the side of the 

 neck. The elongated tail feathers are black, the others white. 

 The short bill is rose-pink, black at the base and tip. I have 

 not handled an adult drake and cannot express an opinion 

 about the legs and irides, but the accounts vary so much that 

 possibly the colours differ individually, and even in the same 

 bird under different stimuli so far as the eyes are concerned. 

 The legs are said to be pale lead coloured, dull yellow, red and 

 reddish brown ; the irides red, yellow, or brown, and Thorburn 

 figures them as brown, Gould as whitish yellow. Probably 

 Saunders is correct when he says "varying from yellow to hazel 

 and red." In its summer dress the drake is reddish brown, as 

 already mentioned, and the short-tailed brown female has an 

 incomplete white collar. One female that I saw in December, 

 evidently an old bird, had the head distinctly greyish white, 

 except on the dark crown and oblong brown patch below the 

 lead-blue bill. The legs were slate and the irides pale brown, 

 certainly not yellow, in a female watched at close quarters. An 

 immature bird in October had the head and neck delicately 

 shaded with grey on white, and an immature drake, with a 

 fairly long tail, was greyer on the back and browner on the 

 nape than the duck with which he was swimming. The bill 

 of immature birds is bluish grey, the legs look dark, and the 

 irides are brown. Male : Length, 20-23 iris. Wing, 9 ins. 

 Tarsus, i'2 ins. Female : Length, 16 ins. Wing, 8 ins. 

 Tarsus, I'l ins. 



Steller's Eider. Heniconetta stelleri (Pallas). 



This beautiful little duck has occurred twice on our east coast. 

 It is a circumpolar species, which has not been proved to nest 

 in Europe, but is found off the shores of Norway and in the 



Series II. F 



