464 STf:LLER's EIDER. 



to be on the Varanger Fjord, just east of the North Cape ; it is, 

 moreover, reported as nesting on the coast of Russian Finmark, and 

 eggs and down are asserted to have been taken at Petschinka in 1870. 

 There is, however, no record of it on Novaya Zemlya, nor along 

 the Arctic coast of Siberia until the Taimyr Peninsula is reached, 

 where Middendorff found the bird common and breeding on the 

 'tundras.' Dr. A. Bunge saw flocks in June at Great Liakoff Island, 

 lat. 73° N., to the east of the Lena delta, and had two eggs brought to 

 him on July 4th ; and the ' Vega ' expedition procured specimens in 

 July close to Bering Strait, north of which this species is common ; 

 while it can be traced down the coast of Kamchatka — where the 

 bird was first obtained by Steller — to the Kuril Islands in winter. 

 In the Aleutian Islands and the north of Alaska it is very abundant, 

 but eastward it is only sparsely distributed along the American shores 

 of the Arctic Sea to Davis Strait ; while it is very rare in West 

 Greenland, and unknown on the east side. 



Middendorff describes the nest as cup-shaped and lined with 

 down, placed in the moss on the fiat ' tundras ' ; the eggs, 7-9 in 

 number, are of a pale greenish-grey colour : measurements 2 "2 by 

 I "6 in. The food consists of marine insects and molluscs. As far 

 as is known, the bird chiefly frequents deep clear sea-water ; and in 

 winter it is found in small flocks, which are sometimes joined by a 

 solitary King-Eider, the only Duck with which this species has been 

 seen to associate. 



The adult male has the head and upper neck chiefly satin-white ; 

 lores and crescentic tuft across the occiput dull green, the latter 

 tipped with black ; chin black ; round the neck a collar of bluish- 

 black, ending in a broad stripe which passes down the middle of 

 the back to the upper tail-coverts ; quills and tail-feathers brown ; 

 secondaries partly white, with a rich dark blue patch ; the decurved 

 inner secondaries and long falcated scapulars white on the inner 

 and rich blue on the outer webs ; below the point of the wing some 

 white feathers tipped with black ; middle of breast and belly rich 

 chestnut-brown, passing into warm buff on the front, sides and 

 flanks ; vent and under tail-coverts dark brown ; bill, legs and 

 feet dark grey. Length 18 in. ; wing 8"5 in. The female is dark 

 brown, mottled with rufous, especially about the neck and breast ; 

 the greater coverts and the secondaries have white tips, forming 

 two bars, which enclose between them a bluish-black wing-patch. 

 The plumage of the immature drake is described on p. 463. 



