NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 75 



eight.* The eggs are from four to ten in number, but often fewer ; 

 they are plain dull greenish-drab ; measuring about 3x2. 



161. Somateria v-nigra GRAY. [628.] 



Pacific Eider. 



Hab. Coasts of the North Pacific; in the interior to the Great Slave Lake, and Eastern Siberia. 



The Pacific Eider is common in suitable places on both coasts and 

 islands of Bering Sea and the polar coasts of Siberia ; replacing the 

 Common Eider, ,S. molissima, Spectacled and Steller's Eiders. Dr. 

 Stejneger says it is now rather scarce on the Commander Islands. 

 On Copper Island it breeds only in a few places, and in limited num- 

 bers. It breeds on the Aleutian Islands, the Island of St. Michael's, 

 and in great numbers on the Arctic coast, near the mouth of the 

 Anderson River. Its nesting habits are the same as those of >S. dres- 

 sert\ and the eggs measure from 2.95 to 3.20 long by 1.95 to 2.10 broad. 



162. Somateria spectabilis (LINN.) [629.] 



King Eider. 



Hab. Northern part of Northern Hemisphere, breeding in the Arctic regions; in North America 

 south casually in winter to New Jersey and the Great Lakes. 



A beautiful Arctic species, very closely resembling the three last. 

 It is a resident of Greenland, and is found on the Atlantic coasts of 

 Europe and America, and on the Pacific coasts of America and Asia, 

 Abundant in various places along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, 

 thence southward in winter on the Pacific side in great numbers to the 

 Aleutian Islands and beyond. Rare on the Alaskan coast of Bering 

 Sea. The nests of this Eider, found in the islands of the Arctic seas, 

 are placed in depressions of the ground, and composed wholly of 

 down. In Greenland the King Eider breeds in the latter part of June 

 or in the first part of July, nesting in the vicinity of ponds and 

 marshes. Six eggs are the usual number laid, but as many as ten are 

 said to be deposited. They vary from light-olive gray to grayish-green, 

 and measure from 3.10 to 3.15 long by 1.75 to 2.10 broad. 



163. Oidemia americana Sw. & RICH. [630.] 



American Scoter. 



Hab. Coasts and larger lakes of Northern North America; breeds in Labrador and the northern inter- 

 ior; south in winter to New Jersey, the Great Lakes and California. 



A few of this species are said to breed in Labrador as they do in 

 the neighborhood of marshes and ponds in the interior, northward. In 

 the Hudson's Bay region the American Scoter nests in June and July. 

 It has been found on islands along the coast of Alaska and at the 

 mouth of the Yukon in June. The Scoter nests similar to the Eider, 



*See Mr. Frazar's article: Ornithologist and Oologist, Vol. XII., pp. 19-20. 



