198 DUCK SHOOTING. 



lower parts, including the upper breast, are pale leaden- 

 gray ; while the whole back and wing, except the greater 

 wing-coverts, the tertiaries and a patch on each side of 

 the rump, are yellowish-white. The bill is orange, 

 deepest along the edge, and pale on the nail. The eyes 

 are pale blue or bluish-white. The feet and legs are 

 yellowish. 



In the adult female the head generally is buffy, 

 streaked with dusky. A strip of brown runs from the 

 bill before the eye to the top of the head. The throat 

 is very little streaked or spotted. The general upper 

 parts are tawny, barred with black. The belly and the 

 region under the tail is grayish-brown. The length is 

 about 20 or 22 inches. 



The spectacled eider is another Alaskan bird of which 

 not very much is known. It is a dweller in the far 

 North, its range seeming to extend only from the mouth 

 of the Kuskokwim River to Point Barrow, where it 

 breeds. Another observer, however, gives it as occur- 

 ing much further to the South, and says that it breeds 

 among the Aleutian Islands, where it is a resident, al- 

 though shy. The nest is built in the grass, not far from 

 the water, and the eggs are from five to nine in number. 

 Mr. Nelson, who has spent so much time in Alaska, and 

 is very familiar with this bird, sounds a note of warning 

 about it, saying that it might readily be so reduced as to 

 become very rare. It is an extremely local bird, and 

 with a narrow breeding range, and with the attacks 

 continually made on it for food by the Eskimo it has 

 every prospect of becoming scarce. 



