I I 8 ANSERIFORMES 



CHAP. 



molluscs, and insects ; while the nest, built in rushy places, 

 contains up to ten coarse-grained white eggs.^ E. leucocephala, 

 rangincp from the Mediterranean to Southern Siberia, and in 

 winter to North-West India or, exceptionally, to Holland, is 

 rufous-brown with black vermiculations and bars, black crown 

 and neck-ring ; the rest of the head and neck being white, the 

 bill blue, the feet dusky. U. Jamaicensis, of Central and temperate 

 North America, E.ferrugijiea, of Bolivia and Peru, E. aequatorialis, 

 of Ecuador, E. maccoa, of South and East Africa, E. vittata, of 

 southern South America, and E. australis, of South and West 

 Australia and Tasmania, are brown with greyer belly mottled with 

 dusky ; the head and neck being black, except for the white cheeks 

 and chin in the first-named and the chin only in the second and third. 

 E. aequatorialis has white instead of rufous under tail-coverts ; E. 

 maccoa has white axillaries as opposed to grey in E. vittata; E. aus- 

 tralis is much deeper chestnut. The females are decidedly duller. E. 

 (Ao?no7i?/a?)^om'imcws,of Central, Southern, and,accidentally, Eastern 

 North America, has the feathers of the back black in the middle and 

 a white speculum. Thalassiornis leuconota, of South and East Africa 

 with Madagascar, is variegated with black and ochreous yellow, the 

 rump being white, the wings, tail, and feet brownish, the bill blue- 

 grey. It dives much, flies little, and lays about four greenish eggs. 

 Sub-fam. 4. Fidigulinae. Somateria molUssima, the Eider 

 Duck, breeds commonly in Northern Britain, and thence to the 

 Taimyr Peninsula eastwards and the Coppermine Eiver westwards, 

 birds from North-East America being separated as S. dresseri ; 

 while S. v-nigrum, differing in its black V-shaped throat mark, 

 occupies North-East Asia and North-West America. In winter 

 the first-named strays as far as South Europe and the United 

 States ; the second has occurred in Holland. The male Eider has 

 white upper parts and buff chest, black lower back, abdomen, and 

 crown, the last showing a white streak ; the wing- and tail-quills 

 are brown, the stiff nape-feathers green, while the plumage extends 

 in a peak on the culmen. The female is brown, with blackish 

 bands or stripes and two white alar bars. The bill and feet are 

 olive-green. S. spectahilis, the King-Eider of the Northern Arctic 

 Eegions, rarely wandering in winter to Britain, France, New Jersey, 

 and California, has the head blue-grey with green and white 

 cheeks, and a black chevron on the throat ; the remaining portions 

 ^ For notes on the courtship, and so forth, see J. G. Kerr, Ibis, 1890, pp. 359, 360. 



