SPECTACLED EIDER. 



A RESIDENT of the remote northwest coast of 

 '*^ America, the Spectacled or Fischer's Eider, as it is 

 sometimes called, is local in its habitat, and is met with 

 from the mouth of the Kuskokwim River to Point Bar- 

 row, appearing at the latter place in summer. Its 

 breeding range, according to Nelson, is from Norton 

 Bay to the Kuskokwim River, but Turner says it also 

 occurs among all the Aleutian Islands, where it breeds 

 and is a constant resident, although extremely shy. 

 This is another of our wild Ducks that have never ap- 

 peared south of Alaska, and only those who have visited 

 the extreme northern part of that Territory, above the 

 Peninsula, have had any opportunity to observe it in 

 its native haunts. Its dispersion is somewhat greater 

 than was at first supposed, but, even as we now know it, 

 the species appears to be very local. It arrives in the 

 vicinity of St. Mich^ I's between the middle and last of 

 May. flying in small flocks not exceeding fifty indi- 

 viduals, and skimming just over the surface of the ice 

 or marsh. Nelson says that the flocks break up soon 

 after reaching their destination and mating takes place, 

 but the eggs are seldom laid before June. The love- 

 making is of a quiet, undemonstrative kind, and the 

 birds are silent, uttering no notes. The nest is a depres- 

 sion amid the grass, in some dry spot near the water, 

 and lined with grass. The eggs, from five to nine of 

 which make a set, are light olive drab in color. Other 

 nesting places are tussocks of grass, small islands in 



