COMMON EIDER. 20I 



The adult female is generally of a reddish-brown 

 color, mostly barred with black, but the head and neck 

 are merely narrowly streaked with black. The crown 

 of the head is darkest. The under parts are a grayish 

 rather than reddish brown, with darker bars. The tips 

 of the secondaries are white, forming two bars across 

 the wing. Length about 22 inches. 



The eider duck inhabits the northern shores of both 

 coasts of the Atlantic. In winter it is found in more or 

 less abundance along the New England coast, and I 

 have seen it killed as far south as Long Island Sound. 



The eider breeds in Labrador, and to the northward, 

 and in many parts of Europe is almost a domestic bird. 

 The down, which is plucked from the breast of the 

 female, for the lining of the nest, is a valuable article of 

 commerce, and in an earlier chapter something has been 

 said about the way these birds are protected and their 

 down secured in Norway and Iceland. 



When seen along the coast of Southern New Eng- 

 land the eider is often found associated with the scoters, 

 there commonly known as coots, and when killed it is 

 usually shot out of flocks of these birds. 



Mr. Gurdon Trumbull notes as names of this bird, 

 and of the next, the terms sea duck and drake, shoal 

 duck, Isles of Shoals duck and wamp (this being of 

 Indian origin, probably from wompi, white). 



