1 66 The Water-fowl Family 



spectacled eider is threatened with extinction, and 

 is now rare in collections. Two specimens of this 

 bird were secured for me by Mr. Dunham, in May, 

 1902, both taken in the vicinity of St. Lawrence 

 Island, the only ones seen on a collecting trip of 

 two months. As soon as the ice leaves the bays 

 and mouths of the rivers, the spectacled eider fre- 

 quents the open water, along with the vast number 

 of sea-ducks, waiting the opportunity of working 

 north to the breeding-grounds. It is seen usually 

 singly or in pairs, rarely in flocks. They frequent 

 the muddy, shallow water and the extensive 

 marshes that line the Alaskan coast of Bering 

 Sea, in their habits resembling the commoner 

 members of the eider family. Marshes on the 

 islands or remote portions of the coast are their 

 breeding-ground. The nest is of dry grass, and 

 the duck is devoted to her charge. During the 

 breeding-season the male, after the custom of 

 other eider, moults into a brown plumage. Later 

 in the summer the birds congregate in small 

 flocks offshore. 



NORTHERN EIDER 

 {So7nateria mollissitna borealis) 



Adiilt male — Top of head, black, with a white stripe in the centre 

 of the occipital region ; nape and posterior area, sea-green ; 

 cheeks, neck, chin, throat, back, smaller wing-coverts, and a large 

 patch on each side of rump, pure white ; greater wing-coverts 

 and secondaries, black ; primaries, brown ; lower part of back 

 and rump, upper and under tail-coverts, and entire under parts 



