ANATID.^-:. 



449 







THE KING-EIDER. 



SOMATERIA SPECTAIULIS. 



The King-Eider is an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, and its 

 visits to our coasts are extremely rare, though naturally more fre- 

 quent in the north than in the south. Mr. J. H. Gurney jun. has a 

 female which was purchased — freshly killed — in Leadcnhall INIarket 

 by the late Mr. Gatcombe, who had previously seen an immature 

 bird at Plymouth ; and one was killed at Bridlington in Yorkshire 

 in August 1850. At the Fame Islands tvvo — apparently a pair — 

 were observed throughout the summer of 1873, an adult male being 

 secured there in the following November; another pair are said to 

 have been seen in May 18S0 ; Mr. H. M. Wallis informs me that 

 he had a good view of an old drake at the end of May 1882 ; and 

 lastly, a mature male was shot on April 25th 1885, off that 

 peculiarly attractive group of islands. In Scotland birds have 

 been obtained or identified by competent observers off Hadding- 

 tonshire, the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, and the mouth of 

 the Tay ; while in the Orkneys three have been taken (one of them 

 in spring), and in Shetland one of a pair was killed by Robert 

 Dunn on the 20th April 1846. There is, however, no satisfactory 

 evidence that this species has bred in any part of the British Islands. 



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