ANATID.^. 



463 



STELLER'S EIDER. 



SOMATERIA STELLERI (Pallas). 



This Arctic species, formerly called Steller's Western Duck, occa- 

 sionally wanders to the temperate portions of Europe in winter, and 

 has twice occurred in England. The first example, a male in nearly 

 adult plumage, was killed on February loth 1830, at Caistor in 

 Norfolk, and having been afterwards presented to the Norwich 

 Museum by the Rev. George Stewart, formed the subject of 

 Yarrell's (and the present) illustration. The second was shot while 

 sitting alone on the sea off Filey Brigg, Yorkshire, on August 15th 

 1845, by the late Mr. G. N. Curzon, and is in the collection of his 

 brother, Lord Scarsdale, at Kedleston, where I have examined it. 

 This bird was beginning to moult, the white feathers on the head 

 and the black marks on the chin and neck — characteristic of the 

 male — being just visible ; but the upper parts are still in the imma- 

 ture plumage, which resembles that of the female. 



Steller's Eider is said to have been obtained in 1855 between 

 Calais and Boulogne ; four examples have been shot off Heligoland, 

 and two in Denmark ; while in the Baltic it is sometimes not 

 uncommon. To the unfrozen waters on the coast of Norway it is an 

 annual winter-visitant, and its most westerly breeding-place is said 



