452 STELT.ERS EIDER. 



is an annual visitant, and its most westerly breeding-place is on the 

 Varanger Fjord, just round the North Cape ; thence eastward it 

 nests on the coast of Russian Finmark, and eggs and down were 

 taken at Petschinka in 1S70. There is no record of it on Novaya 

 Zemlya, or along the Arctic coast of Siberia west of the Taimyr 

 Peninsula, where Dr. von Middendorfif found the bird common and 

 breeding on the * tundras ' ; Dr. A. Bunge saw flocks in June at the 

 mouth of the Lena, and had two eggs brought to him on July 4th ; 

 the ' Vega ' expedition procured specimens in July close to Bering 

 Strait, north of which it is common ; and its range can be traced 

 down the coast of Kamschatka — where the species was first 

 obtained by Steller— to the Kuril Islands in winter. In the 

 Aleutian Islands and the north of Alaska it is very abundant, but 

 eastward it is only sparsely distributed along the American shores of 

 the Arctic Sea to Davis Straits ; while it is very rare in Greenland. 



Dr. von Middendorfif describes the nest as cup-shaped and lined 

 with down, placed in the moss on the flat ' tundras ' ; the eggs, 7-9 

 in number, are of a pale greenish-grey colour : average measure- 

 ments 2 '2 by I "6 in. The food consists of marine insects and 

 molluscs. As far as is known, the bird only frequents deep clear 

 sea-water ; and in winter it is found in small flocks, which are 

 sometimes joined by a single King-Eider, the only Duck with which 

 this species has been seen to associate. The call-note is said to be 

 similar to that of the Teal, but somewhat harsher. 



The adult male has the head and upper neck chiefly satin-white ; 

 lores and crescentic tuft across the occiput dull green, the latter 

 tipped with black ; chin black ; round the neck a collar of bluish- 

 black, ending in a broad stripe which passes down the middle of 

 the back to the upper tail-coverts ; quills and tail-feathers brown ; 

 secondaries partly white, with a rich dark blue speculum ; the 

 decurved inner secondaries and long falcated scapulars white on 

 the inner and rich blue on the outer webs ; below the point of the 

 wing some white feathers tipped with black ; middle of breast and 

 belly rich chestnut-brown, passing into warm buff on the front, sides 

 and flanks ; vent and under tail-coverts dark brown ; bill, legs and 

 feet dark grey. Length igin. ; wing 8-5 in. The female is dark 

 brown, mottled with rufous, especially about the neck and breast ; 

 the greater coverts and the secondaries have white tips, forming 

 two bars, which enclose between them a bluish-black speculum. 

 The plumage of the immature drake has already been noticed. 



