936 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS.— LAMELLIROSTRES — ANSERES. 



■e\CT, tliat this was going too far (2d ed. p. 709), though no farther than such a high authority 

 as Professor Newton goes without hesitation. I now follow the A. 0. U. in according to Heni- 

 conetta full generic rank, but as I am not a cockney, and do not drop my /I's, I must crave per- 

 mission to spell the word as well as I know how — not Eniconetta, as A. 0. U. insists upon, 

 after G. R. Gray's original cockneyism of 1840. A case like this reminds me of the English 

 veterinary surgeon who swore that a haitch and a ho and a har and a hess and a he spelt 'orse ! 

 H. stel'leri. (To G. W. Steller. Fig. 655.) Steller's Eider. Adult ^ : Bill and feet 

 dull grayish-blue, the former lighter at tip ; webs darker ; iris brown of variable shades. 

 Top and sides of head and collar on neck silvery-white, washed across forehead and hind head 

 with sea-green ; chin with a black patch narrowing to run down, breaking through the white 

 collar and continuous with a broad black ring around neck; a similar patch around eye; these 

 black areas with various lustre. Upper parts at large glossy jiurplish blue-black ; wiug- 

 coverts white ; several secondaries forming a violet speculum, tipped with white ; long inner 

 secondaries and outer scapulars silvery-white, the inner scapulars vit)let, striped with white 

 edges; lining of wings, mostly, and axillars, white. Under parts dull chestnut-brown, passing 

 to sooty black on belly and crissum, with an isolated black spot on each side of breast. 

 Young (J closely resembles 9 • I^ both sexes bill and feet of an undefiuable dark color in 

 dried specimens. Adult 9 • Differs as Eiders do; dark reddish-brown, blackening on belly 

 and crissum, nmch mottled and barred with black ; head and neck lighter brownish, speckled 

 with dusky ; wing-coverts dusky, with paler gray tips ; no white except on lining of wings and 

 tips of greater coverts and of secondaries, these forming two white bars enclosing an imperfect 

 speculum. Length 16.00-18.00, extent 27.00-30.00; wing 8.00-8.50; tail 3.50; bill 1.50 

 along culmen, 1.75 along gape; tarsus 1.25 ; middle toe and claw 2.20. Northern regions of 

 Europe, Asia, and western North America ; accidental on east side of continent ; abounding 

 and sometimes gathering in enormous flocks on the islands and both shores of Bering's Sea and 

 the Arctic coast of N. E. Siberia ; wintering mainly on the Aleutian Islands ; usually found in 

 company with Pacific, Spectacled, and King Eiders. Like other Eiders the Drake moults 

 during the breeding season into a temporary, dull, protective plumage of the body, preliminary 

 to the annual moult. The most beautiful of many specimens I have handled have been winter 

 birds. Eggs 7-9, 2.25 X 1-60, or a little more, ranging through drab t(j clearer greenish, and 

 thus exactly like those of the common Eider in shape, color, and texture of shell; nest the 

 same, on the ground, generally sunken in moss or sphagnum, and furnislied copiously with 

 down; May- July. 



ARCTONET'TA. (Gr. ap/croy, arktos, a bear, esp. the brown bear of Europe, Ursus arctos, 

 also the constellation Ursa Major, hence the North ; i/^rra, netta, a duck. Fischerias. 

 Characters of Somateria strictly, except the formation of the base of the bill and outline of the 

 frontal feathers, as described under head of the only species ; and with further exception of 

 peculiar circumorbital plumage. (As subgenus of Somateria in former eds- of the Key.) 

 A. fis'cheri. (To Gotth. Fischer, a Russian naturalist. Fig. 656.) Spectacled Eider. 

 Bill (in both sexes) peculiar in extension ujjon it of dense velvety feathers which reach to a 

 point on culmen beyond nostrils, thence sweeping past nostrils obliquely downward and back- 

 ward to commissure ; nostrils opening just beneath line of feathers. Feathers of chin extend- 

 ing in a point nearly as far as those on culmen. A dense, puffy patch of velvety feathers about 

 eye, suggesting spectacles; frontal feathers erect, pilous, like a pad, in ^ somewhat stiffened; 

 occipital feathers lengthened into a hanging hood ; these characters of head-feathering best 

 marked in ^, but indicated also in 9. Nail of bill distinct. Adult ^ : Bill orange; feet 

 brownish-olive with yellowish scales on front of tarsus; iris white, ringed with light blue. 

 General color grayish-black; neck and most of back white; lesser and median wing-coverts, 

 long curved inner secondaries, lining of wings, axillars, and patch on side of rump, white. On 

 head, white of neck gives way to rich sea-green, especially on occipital crest ; frontal feathers 



