324 ANATID.E : SWANS, GEESE, AND DUCKS. 



being almost impossible to shoot one sitting on the 

 water, as they go under at the flash. I do not think it 

 breeds now, though it may have done so in years past." 

 See Brewer, Bull. Nutt. Club, ii, 1877, p. 46 ; Allen, Bull. 

 Essex Inst., x, 1878, p. 27 ; Boardman, Pr. Bost. Soc., ix, 

 1862, p. 130. 



EIDER DUCK. 



SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA DRESSERI (Skarpe) CoiteS. 



Chars. Bill not feathered to the nostrils, with long club-shaped 

 processes extending in a line with the culmen upon the sides of 

 the forehead, divided by a broad feathered interspace. Male in 

 breeding attire white, creamy-tinted on breast, and washed with 

 green on head ; under parts from the breast, lower back, rump, 

 tail, quills, and large forked patch on the crown, black. Female 

 with the bill less developed ; general plumage an extremely vari- 

 able shade of reddish-brown or ochrey-brown, speckled, mottled 

 and barred with darker ; male in certain stages resembling the 

 female. Length, about 2 feet ; extent, 35.00 ; wing, 11.00-12.00 ; 

 bill of male, 3.00; tarsus, 1.75. 



This celebrated bird, semi-domesticated in some 

 places, yields most of the prized eider-down of com- 

 merce, which the parent plucks from the breast to 

 cover the eggs. 



Though given in Dr. Brewer's catalogue of 1875 only 

 as a "winter visitant," the Eider Duck is resident in 

 New England, breeding sparingly on the Maine coast 

 eastward (Boardman, Pr. Bost. Soc., ix, 1862, p. 130), and 

 in winter extending its range beyond Connecticut. Mr. 

 Purdie informs us that to his knowledge it nests on 

 the Maine coast at least as far westward as Mt. Desert. 



