LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 103 



America come very close tofrether and perhaps overlap. Avith a irood 

 chance for hj^bridizing or intero;radinfi as subspecies. 



Some interesting specimens have been taken in eastern waters 

 which are Avorth considering. Hagerup (1891) mentions specimens 

 of Sonnateria molUssima^ taken by Holboell in Greenland, Avhich 

 showed the black lancet-shaped figure on the throat so characteristic 

 of S. v-nigra. Holboell supposed that these were hybrids Avith S. 

 spectabilis which also has this black V. Mr. Arthur H. Norton 

 (1897) obtained seA-eral specimens of immature males of S. dresseri 

 on the coast of Maine, from Avhich he inferred " that the black lancet 

 is a character of frequent occurrence in the young drakes of S. 

 dresseri; and tliere are strong reasons for the belief that it occurs 

 in S. mollissima horealis.'''' Mr. W. A. Stearns (1883) obtained 

 similar specimens on the coast of Labrador and even recorded the 

 Pacific eider as of regular occurrence there. The occasional appear- 

 ance of this mark in immature males might perhaps indicate an 

 occasional cross betAveen two species, but it seems more reasonable 

 to regard it as a reA^ersion to an ancestral type, which Avould mean 

 that at some date, probably not very remote, these three eiders be- 

 longed to a single species and perhaps CAen noAv they are merely 

 intergrading subspecies. In this connection I Avould refer the reader 

 to Dr. Charles W. ToAvnsend's (191G«) interesting paper and plate 

 shoAving intergradation between ^S'. moJlissma horealis and S. dresseri. 



Whatever the systematic status of the Pacific eider ma}^ proA^e to 

 be, its habits and its lift history are practically the same as those 

 of the Atlantic species, and nearly eA^erything that has been Avritten 

 about the latter AAOuld apply equally aacII to the former. Therefore 

 I shall not attempt to AAn-ite a full life history of this species, AAhich 

 would be largely repetition. 



Nesfinff. — By the time that we reached the Aleutian Islands, early 

 in June, the vast horde of eiders that winter in the open Avaters 

 of this region Iiad departed, to return to their extensive breeding 

 grounds farther north. But Ave found the Pacific eider aacU dis- 

 tributed, as a breeding bird, on all of the islands west of Unalaska. 

 They Avere particularly abundant about Kiska Harbor in small flocks 

 and mated i)airs. They frequented the rocky beaches at the bases 

 of the cliffs, where they sat on the loose rocks, fed in the kelp beds 

 about them, and built their nests among the large bouldei's above 

 high-AA-ater mark. Here on June 19, 1911, I examined two nests of 

 this species; one, containing 5 fresh eggs, Avas concealed in a holloAV 

 under or betAveen two tufts of tall, rank grass Avhich grew back of 

 a large boulder on the beach at the foot of a high grassy cliff; the 

 other, containing 4 fresh eggs, was hidden in the long grass at the 

 top of a steep grassy slope ; both nests Avere Avell supplied with doAA-n. 



