BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 151 



KING EIDER {Somateria spedabilis). 



Length. — 20 to ^25 inches. 



Adult Male. — Top of head beautiful pearl gray, shading to deeper on the 

 nape; a glossy black line bordering the base of the upper part of bill, 

 which is reddish orange and formed like a shield for the forehead; 

 cheeks pale sea green; small spot under eye, ej'elid and V-shaped mark 

 on throat black; rest of head, neck, upper back and shoulders creamy 

 white; lower back, sides and under parts black; wings and tail dark 

 brown; a large white patch on fore wing; two narrow white wing-bars; 

 breast creamy buff; iris yellow; bill orange and yellow, with white tip; 

 feet reddish orange, webs dusky. 



Adult Female. — Nearly the entire plumage of two shades of buff, streaked 

 and barred with dark brown; head, chin and throat dark buff, streaked 

 conspicuously on head, faintly on sides; breast and flanks light buff, 

 with irregular black bars on tips of feathers; under parts deep brown, 

 more or less barred; tail black; iris brown; feet dull yellow, webs dusky. 



Field Marks. — The male is distinguished by his peculiarly shaped head 

 and its markings. The female in winter has two rather narrow but 

 distinct white wing-bars. 



Season. — Very rare winter visitor; November to April. 



Range. — Northern part of northern hemisphere. Breeds along the whole 

 coast of northern Siberia, Bering Sea (St. Lawrence Island) and Arctic 

 coast of America from Icy Cape east to Melville Island, Wellington 

 Channel, northern Greenland, northwestern Hudson Bay and northern 

 Ungava; winters on Pacific coast from Aleutian Islands to Kadiak 

 Island; in the interior rarely to the Great Lakes, and from southern 

 Greenland and Gulf of St. Lawrence south regularly to Long Island, 

 rarely to Georgia; accidental in California and Iowa. 



History. 

 The King Eider is an arctic species and its habits resemble 

 those of the common Eider. It is sometimes seen off the 

 Massachusetts coast, and is usually rare on the Maine coast. 

 It is a deep-water Duck, feeding mostly on mussels, according 

 to Eaton, who states that it is taken sometimes in the deep- 

 water gill nets of the lake fishermen in more than one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet of water, where it is said to find its food. 

 The female lines her nest with down, as do the other species, 

 and it forms part of the eider down of commerce, which is 

 gathered by the natives in Greenland. Knight found this 

 species eating great quantities of mussels on the Maine coast, 



