76 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vii. 



birds change the bright parts of the plumage such as the 

 head, neck, upper-breast, back and upper scapulars in 

 a week, the rest of the plumage — which embraces the 

 lower-parts, wings, inner secondaries, tail, and tail- 

 coverts — is only changed once into direct winter-plumage. 

 The bird may be said to be in full ecHpse about August 5th 

 when it has a very " black " appearance on the water. 



Head and neck, except for a small space of grey and black 

 feathers over the eye, black with proximal parts of the 

 feathers brown ; na'pe, mantle, and scapulars black ; some- 

 times the black feathers in the centre of the hack are finely 

 edged with white, but this wears off in October ; wings and 

 tail as in winter-plumage ; upper-breast white barred with 

 black and edged with reddish-brown ; rest of under-parts 

 black as in winter-plumage. 



Note. — Some examples are not so dark as above described 

 and have the chin and throat suffused with grey, others never 

 completely lose the white feathers on the nape but renew 

 in September directly into white again. I do not feel certain 

 as to what extent the feathers on the upper-breast are changed, 

 and think this region is shed differently according to 

 individuals, some taking on temporary eclipse- feathers and 

 others only renewing once between July 1st and October 1st. 

 I think however the region nearest to the neck is generally 

 renewed twice and that nearest to the lower-breast and belly 

 only once, because we find males in every degree of feathers 

 " w^earing " from October 1st to the end of November. The 

 black-edged feathers in October and November are not 

 shed again during these months to pure buff ones, but wear 

 the black edges away. 



Briefly, to summarize the plumages of the male Eider, 

 the duckling passes from its down -state to Juvenile - 

 plumage, which it only retains in part, varying greatly 

 in individuals, for a short time. The " speckled " 

 First Winter-plumage is attained through the first 

 winter and early spring. The juvenile- wing, sometimes 

 the tail, and usually the lower-parts are retained for 

 a whole year. At twelve months the greater part of 

 the First Eclipse-plumage is assumed, and this again is 

 soon moulted with the parts of the plumage that only 



