108 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



round), middle of back, scapulars, tertials and secondaries glossy blue-hlack; scapu- 

 lars striped with satiny white, and tertials with inner webs wholly of this color ; 

 all the wing-coverts, anterior scapulars, and sides of back, pure white; speculum 

 rich dark violet or violet-blue, tipped with white; lower \)a.v\.A deep tawny, becom- 

 ing dusky or blackish on belly and fading into a more buffy or ochreous tint on 

 chest, sides, and flanks. Adult female : Above dusky and fulvous, the former pre- 

 vailing ; head and neck light brownish, speckled with dusky ; chest and breast light 

 rusty brown, irregularly spotted or barred with dusky ; belly uniform sootj^ brown ; 

 wing-coverts dusky, tipped with brownish gray ; falcate tertials mostly dusky, and 

 speculum much less brilliant than in the male. Young : Similar to adult female, 

 but tertials much less falcate, and speculum dull dusky, with little if any metallic 

 lustre. Length 16.00-18.00, wing 8.00-8.50, culmen 1.40-1.45. Eggs 2.30 X 1-62, 

 varying from pale olive-buff to pale grayish olive-green or pale dull pea-green. 

 Hab. Arctic and subarctic coasts of northern hemisphere ; Aleutian Islands, east to 

 Unalashka, Kadiak, and Fort Kenai on the Alaskan coast. 



157. E. stelleri (Pall.). Steller's Duck. 



Genus ARCTONETTA Gray. (Page 87, pi. XXVI., fig. 1.) 



Species. 



Adult male in winter: Satiny "pad" encircling eye, dull white, bordered ante- 

 riorly and posteriorly by a vertical black line; lores and forehead covered by a 

 "cushion" of stiffened feathers (like the •' pile" of velvet plush), whitish antei'iorly, 

 shading into olive-green and this into light greenish buff; crown and occiput cov- 

 ered by a cowl or hood of pendent, stiffened, hair-like feathers of a light olive- 

 green color ; a broad stripe of darker green beneath the eye ; rest of head and neck 

 white ; lower parts, rump, etc., plain plumbeous drab, or dark smoky gray ; entire 

 back, scapulars, wing-coverts (except greater), falcate tertials, and patch on each 

 side of rump, yellowish white; bill orange (in life). Adult female : Above barred 

 with light fulvous and black; lower parts similar, the abdomen, however, plain 

 grayish brown ; head and neck light grayish buff, finely streaked with dusky, the 

 throat, however, nearly immaculate; wings grayish brown, the greater coverts 

 and secondaries indistinetlj- tipped with whitish. Length about 21.50, wing 10.00, 

 culmen 1.00. Eggs 2.57 X 1-77, pale olive-buff, varying to pale grayish olive-green 

 or pea-green. Ilab. Coast of Alaska, from Norton Sound to Point Barrow. 



158. A. fischeri (Brandt). Spectacled Eider. 



Genus SOMATERIA Leach. (Rige 87, pi. XXY., fig. 6; pi. XXVL, fig. 3.) 



Species. 



Common Characters. — Adult 7nales with the plumage jiicd black and while 

 (the lower parts chiefly black, the upper surface mostly white), the breast more 

 buff or cream-colored, the head varied with light green, Mack, etc. Females and 

 young with the plumage barred with dusky and pale fulvous or rusty, the head and 



