596 Mr, H. E. Dresser on the Russian 



found was in a flat low-lying mossy place near a rivulet and 

 about a couple of feet from a small pool; it was a round 

 depression, not deep, about 25 cm. in diameter, plentifully 

 lined with rather coarse down, and containing six eggs but 

 slightly incubated. When Mr. Birulia was about fifteen paces 

 from the nest the female bird left her nest, at the same time 

 bespattering her eggs with a liquid secretion, and ran about 

 beating the ground with her wings. During the nesting- 

 season the King-Eider is very unsociable and the nests are 

 usually far apart, but on the small islands, where it is safe 

 from the attacks of the Arctic fox, the nests are nearer to each 

 other and it often breeds in company with Geese and Gulls. 

 The female sits very closely, and even when kicked off her nest 

 will try to return at once. Whilst the females are incubating 

 the drakes may be seen in flocks of seven or eight on the 

 small lakes near the nesting-places and not on the sea. From 

 the 26th of July to the 8th of August flocks were seen, and 

 even a day or two later the males had not moulted their 

 plumage. 



Somateria fischeri was seen on several occasions on New 

 Siberia, but Mr. Birulia did not shoot it. It is rarer there 

 than the King-Eider and Avas never seen in flocks, but only 

 in pairs or two pairs together. The first pair was seen on the 

 28th May /10th June and the last pairs were observed on the 

 26th June/9th July, always on the coast or in the open sea, 

 and Mr. Birulianever saw any trace of tHis duck breeding on 

 New Siberia. The ivory merchants never met with S. fischeri 

 on the islands of Liakhovski, Kotelny, or Faddeevski, and it 

 would seem that it comes to New Siberia straight across the 

 sea, probably from the Indighveka. It is well known to 

 the natives of the Yansk district and nests along the entire 

 coast of the Arctic Ocean as far west as the Lena. In the 

 basin of the Mouksounovka river S. fischeri breeds on the 

 borders of the lakes, more rarely on the islands in the river 

 valleys, and almost always far from the sea. It does not sit 

 so closely as S. spectahilis and is shy and diflScult of approach. 

 Apparently it does not arrive in the spring or leave in the 

 autumn in lai^ge flocks, and at its nesting-place it is seen 

 singly or in pairs. 



