IV ANATIDAE II9 



being black except fur tbe buff breast, white neck, upper back, 



lesser wing-coverts, and a patch on each side of the rump. The 



feet and the bill, with its vertical black-edged disc at the base, are 



orange. The female is redder than in the Eider, with a more 



feathered culmen. These species are essentially maritime, only 



coming to shore to breed ; they are semi-gregarious, and form a 



nest of grass and rubbish, a quantity of down underlying the five 



to eight oily-green eggs. Eider-down is chiefly procured from 



Iceland, Greenland, and protected islands in Norway. The flight 



is low and heavy, the food consists of mussels, starfish, and other 



sea creatures. Arctonetta Jischeri, the Spectacled Eider of Alaska, 



is chiefly white, with dark grey rump and under parts ; the head 



being varied with green and decorated with pendent bristly plumes 



on the occiput, stiff frontal and loral feathers, and a satin-like 



quadrangular patch outlined with black on each side. The tail- 



and wing-quills are brown, except the falcate inner secondaries ; 



the feet are brownish, the bill is orange in the male. The female 



is fulvous and black with bluish beak. Hcniconetta stelleri breeds 



on the Arctic shores mainly between the Taimyr Peninsula and 



Alaska, and has strayed to Britain and even France. The head, 



falcate scapulars, and inner secondaries are white with blue-black 



outer webs to the two latter, the rest of the wing-quills and tail 



brown ; the back, throat, neck, and a spot on each side of the breast 



purplish-black ; the lores and short occipital tuft green, the lower 



parts mostly tawny. The female is brown with darker markings, 



and duller wing-bar. Camj^tolaemtis lahraduriiis, the extinct " Pied 



Duck " of the North Atlantic coast of America, was black, with 



white head, neck, chest, scapulars, and most of the wings except 



the primaries ; it had a black stripe dow"n the crown and stiff 



cheek-feathers. The brownish female shewed a white speculum. 



Oedemia 7iigra, the Scoter or Black Duck, which nests in Korth 



Scotland, ranges over Northern Europe and Asia to the Taimyr 



Peninsula, sometimes reaching the Azores and the Mediterranean 



in winter. It is black, with a yellow nasal patch and a swollen 



base to the culmen, the female being dark brown with greyish 



face and throat, and no protuberance or yellow mark. Oe. 



americana of North-East Asia and North America, migrating to 



Japan, California, and New Jersey, has the knob yellow with 



red sides, while the female is grey-brown. Oe.fusca, the Velvet 



Scoter, extends from Scandinavia to West Siberia, and occurs 



