431- Mr. E. Adams on the Birds of Michalaski. 



semicircular projection ; line of the feathers sloping from this, 

 behind the nostrils, to the rictus ; no appearance of lobes : 

 feet as in Somateria spectabi/is -, iris sky-blue. 



The measurements of the male were as follows : — Expanse 

 of wing 34" ; total length 20" 8"' ; bill above 11"', bill to rictus 

 2" 3'"; tarsus 1" 10'", middle toe and nail 2" 9'", hind toe and 

 nail 11'"; tail 2" 9"'; wing 9" 6'". 



Black-throated Eider Duck. Somateria ? 



Mit-hok, Eski. 



[Somateria v-ni(/rum, G. R. Gray, P. Z. S. 1855, p. 211, pi. 

 107 ; Dall & Bann. p. 300.] 



The first of these birds I met with on the 10th of May ; 

 and soon after they became pretty numerous. They fre- 

 quented all the marshes, but were generally flying about ; 

 they seldom alighted on a lake, coming straight in from the 

 sea, generally along the river-course ; they took a few turns 

 about the marshes, and again went out to sea. They soon 

 fixed upon their breeding-places ; and their nests were scat- 

 tered over the whole of the marshes. One nest was v/ithin 

 thirty yards of the fort, in the midst of children and dogs ; 

 the old one built her nest and laid four eggs before she was 

 discovered. Yet they are very wary and difficult to approach. 

 On the wing they fly in a straight line, and appear stupid, 

 often flying within a few yards of the sliooter. They are veiy 

 swift on the wing, and carry oft' a great quantity of shot. 



One pair, which I watched very particularly, built their 

 nest in a sv/ampy hollow between two small lakes, about 

 twenty yards from one of them. It was placed in the midst 

 of tall gass, and built of rushes and grass, and well lined with 

 feathers and down. By the latter end of the month they had 

 laid six eggs ; and the female then began to sit. 



The male assisted in building the nest, but not in the pro- 

 cess of incubation. Whilst building they worked only very 

 early in the morning ; but when the female began to lay, both 

 of them came in from seaward a little before noon, and after 

 a few turns round, to see that all was right, both of them 

 alighted in the lake. Here they remained some little time, 



