KING EIDER. 171 



birds of a piebald appearance are to be seen, 

 which are those that have not attained their com- 

 plete dress. Three and four years is the time al- 

 lotted by most of our British writers for this pur- 

 pose, the fact being stated, without entering into 

 the causes for a departure from the more general 

 rules.. 



THE KING EIDER, SOMATERIA SPECTABILIS. 

 Anas spectabilis, Linn. S. spectabilis^ Flem., Selly, 

 Jen., &c. The King Duck^ or King Eider of British 

 authors. The claim which this species has to be 

 considered a British species is very scanty. Colonel 

 Montagu states that Mr. Bullock informed him he 



o 



had found it breeding in Orkney, but we have not 

 since traced its occurrence on any of the Scottish 

 coasts. A specimen is mentioned by Mr. Jenyns as 

 killed on the Suffolk coast, and one from the Irish 

 shores is in the collection of Mr. Ball. On the Con- 

 tinent its distribution is equally uncertain, but it in- 

 creases in abundance northward, though apparently 

 it never becomes so frequent there as the last. It 

 is near to the Arctic circle that the stronghold of 

 this species prevails, breeding on the sea-shore, but 

 sometimes in the neighbourhood of fresh-water 

 ponds. Captain Beechy (exp. of the Dorothea and 

 Trent, 1818) mentions the great abundance of the 

 King Eider on some rocky islands on the coast off 

 Spitzbergen. The sailors could scarcely walk with- 

 out treading on their nests, and sacks might have 



