938 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — LAMELLIROSTRES— ANSERES. 



black and white, with sea-green on head ; feathers uf head in part sliurt, dose-set, and erect, 

 like pile of velvet, in part usually stiffish and bristly. Several remarkable species, of the 

 Northern Hemisphere. 



Analysis of Subgenera, Species, and Subspecies. 



(f Bill gibbous at base of upper mandible ; outline of culmen variously curved ; with long, acute or clubbed, tumid 

 process extending in line with culmen on each side of forehead, divided by extension of feathers on culmen ; 

 feathers of side of bill advancing to about under nostrils, far beyond those on culmen. (Somateria proper.) 

 (if No black V-mark on chin. 



Frontal processes short, narrow, acute, parallel. Smaller mollisslma borealis 



Frontal processes long, broad, clubbed, divergent. Larger dresseri 



(f A black V-mark on chin v-nigruni 



(f Bill extremely gibbous at base of upper mandible, with broad squarish nearly vertical frontal processes bulging 

 angularly out of line of culmen, on each side of forehead, divided by extreme projection of featliers on culmen far 

 beyond those on sides of mandible, which do not nearly reiich nostrils. (Erionetta.) 



(f A black V-mark on chin spectabilis 



S. mollis'sima borealis, (Lat. molUssima, very soft, superlative of mollis, soft ; referring to 

 the down of the Eider; and borealis, boreal, northern. Figs. 657, 658.) Northern Eider 

 Duck. Greenland Eider. Bill (in both sexes) with lateral frontal process extending on 



each side of forehead, between the short 

 pointed extension of feathers on culmen and 

 tlie much greater extension of those on sides 

 of bill, which reach to below nostrils, about 

 opposite those on chin. General upper 

 outline of bill nearly straight, and frontal 

 processes narrow, acute, and nearly parallel 

 (see figs, and compare description of next 

 species). Adult $ : Plumage almost en- 

 tirely black and white. Top of head glossy 

 blue-black, including eyes, and forking be- 

 hind to receive the white of the hind head. 

 Occiput more or less washed with sea-green, 

 which does not encroach on the white of sides 

 of head. Neck all around, fore breast, most 

 of the back, most of the wing-coverts above 

 and below, curly inner secondaries, and sides 

 of rump, wliite, on breast tinged with pale 

 creamy-brown. Middle line of rump, upper 

 tail-co verts, and under parts from breast, 

 black or blackish. Bill yellowish. Length 

 about 24.00; extent 40.00 ; wing 11.00; tail 

 4.00 ; tarsus 1 .75 ; middle toe and claw 3.75 : 

 culmen of bill 2.00 or less, from apex of 

 frontal processes to tip 2.60 ; along gape 

 2.40. Adult 9: Sufficiently similar to ^ in 

 character of bill, and feathering of its base ; 

 plumage entirely different, being nearly 

 everywhere varied, chiefly in bars, with 

 black, chestnut-l)rown, and yellowish-brown, giving way on under parts to grayish-brown 

 with dusky nebulation. Size less than that of ^. Eggs nearly or about 3.00 X 2.00, from 

 pale bufl" through drab shades to greenish. Greenland and eastern parts of arctic and sub- 

 arctic America, S. in winter to Massachusetts. This is a boreal American race of the common 



Fig. 657. — Bills of Eiders, * nat. size, viewed from above 

 and in profile. 1, S. vioUissima ; 2, S. dresseri. (From 

 Sharpe.) 



