118 ANSERIFORMES CHAP. 
molluses, and insects; while the nest, built in rushy places, 
contains up to ten coarse-grained white eggs! £. leucocephala, 
ranging from the Mediterranean to Southern Siberia, and in 
winter to North-West India or, exceptionally, to Holland, is 
rufous-brown with black vermiculations and bars, black crown 
and neck-ring; the rest of the head and neck being white, the 
bill blue, the feet dusky. #. jamaicensis, of Central and temperate 
North America, £. ferruginea, of Bolivia and Peru, 2. wequatorialis, 
of Ecuador, #. maccoa, of South and East Africa, £. vittata, of 
southern South America, and #. australis, of South and West 
Australia and Tasmania, are brown with greyer belly mottled with 
dusky ; the head and neck being black, except for the white cheeks 
and chin in the first-named and the chin only in the second and third. 
LE. aequatorialis has white instead of rufous under tail-coverts; £. 
maccoa has white axillaries as opposed to grey in £. vittata; LE. aus- 
tralis is much deeper chestnut. The females are decidedly duller. £. 
(Nomonyx) dominicys, of Central, Southern,and, accidentally, Eastern 
North America, has the feathers of the back black in the middle and 
a white speculum. Z/alassiornis leuconota, of South and East Africa 
with Madagascar, is variegated with black and ochreous yellow, the 
rump being white, the wings, tail, and feet brownish, the bill blue- 
grey. It dives much, flies little, and lays about four greenish eggs. 
Sub-fam. 4. Fuligulinae—Somateria mollissima, the Eider 
Duck, breeds commonly in Northern Britain, and thence to the 
Taimyr Peninsula eastwards and the Coppermine River westwards, 
birds from North-East America being separated as S. dresseri ; 
while S. v-nigrwm, differing in its black V-shaped throat mark, 
occupies North-East Asia and North-West America. In winter 
the first-named strays as far as South Europe and the United 
States; the second has occurred in Holland. The male Eider has 
white upper parts and buff chest, black lower back, abdomen, and 
crown, the last showing a white streak; the wing- and tail-quills 
are brown, the stiff nape-feathers green, while the plumage extends 
in a peak on the culmen. The female is brown, with blackish 
bands or stripes and two white alar bars. The bill and feet are 
olive-green. 8S. spectabilis, the King-Eider of the Northern Arctic 
Regions, rarely wandering in winter to Britain, France, New Jersey, 
and California, has the head blue-grey with green and white 
cheeks, and a black chevron on the throat ; the remaining portions 
1 For notes on the courtship, and so forth, see J. G. Kerr, Zbis, 1890, pp. 359, 360. 
