EIDER DUCK. 



A NSERES. 



457 



ANATID^E. 



SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA (LinilfeilS*). 



THE EIDER DUCK. 



Somateria mollissima. 



SoMATERiA, Boie\. — Bill swollen and elevated at the base ; extending up on 

 the forehead, where it is divided by an elongated, descending, angular projection 

 of feathers down the surface. Nostrils lateral, oval, small. Legs short ; feet of 

 three anterior toes, broadly webbed ; bind toe with a deeply-lobated membrane. 

 Wings of moderate length, with the first and second quill-feathers sub-equal. 

 Tail short, of fourteen feathers. 



The Eider Duck, though indigenous to some of the 

 northern parts of England, as well as several of the Scot- 

 tish Islands, is only a winter visitor to the southern portions 

 of the kingdom. At long intervals it has been obtained on 

 the coasts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Hampshire ; more 

 frequently off Sussex and Kent ; while along the east coast 



* Anas mollissima, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 198 (1760). 

 t Isis, 1822, p. 564. 

 VOL. TV. B N 



