114 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and fading of the brown edgings, particularly on the scapulars, 

 wings, and flanks. 



Food. — Referring to the food of this species on its breeding 

 grounds, Mr. Manniche (1910) says: 



In the season in which the king eider lives in fresh water its food consists 

 principally of plants. In the stomachs which I examined I found, however, 

 many remnants of insects, especially larvae of gnats. In the stomachs of 

 downy young ones I found indeterminable remnants of crustaceans, plants, and 

 small stones. 



At other seasons king eiders are essentially salt-water birds and 

 spend much of their time out on the open sea. They obtain their 

 food by diving, generally at moderate depths, to the rocky shoals 

 and ledges where they find the bulk of their food, which consists 

 mainly of mollusks, conchylia, bivalve, and univalve shellfish of a 

 great variety of species. Thej^ are also said to eat a number of 

 crustaceans, shrimps, starfish, small fishes, and fish spawn. On the 

 coast of Maine in winter, Arthur H. Norton (1909) found that one 

 " had its gullet filled with large specimens of Gammarus locusta. 

 the common sea flea of our shores. Another was similarly filled with 

 young crabs {Cancer irroratus), in both instances to the exclusion 

 of other food." Ora W. Knight (1908) says: "They are said to 

 feed in rather deeper water than the other eiders, and Mr. Nortoii 

 has recorded the fact that certain individuals had been eating sea 

 cucumbers {Pentaeta frondosa) to the practical exclusion of other 

 material. While a few I have examined also evidenced some fond- 

 ness for such a diet, they also had been eating great quantities of 

 mussels." Apparently almost any kind of animal food to be found 

 in the sea is a welcome addition to the food of this bird. 



Behavior. — The flight of the king eider is similar to that of the 

 other eiders, but the male can be easily recognized, even at a long dis- 

 tance, by the larger amount of black in the back and wings. The 

 adults are usually very shy, but the immature birds are often very 

 unsuspicious. As this species has to fly inland to its breeding places, 

 it has less fear of the land than the common eider and does not object 

 to flying over points of land which lie in its line of flight. 



F. Seymour Hersey says, in his n'^^^es : 



The flight of the king eider, like all tfie eiders with which I am familiar, is 

 swift. The wings are moved very rapidly and the large heavy body is pro- 

 pelled with a speed and directness that is bulletlike. A bird shot on the wing 

 will frequently strike the water and bound along the surface for a consider- 

 able distance before coming to a stop. A bird which I shot at Cape Dyer just 

 as it was about to round a turn in a small inlet it was flying over at the time, 

 continued straight ahead from the momentum it had acquired and struck the 

 tundra several yards from the water, where I found it nearly hidden from 

 sight in the tundra mosses into which the impact of its fall had embedded it. 



