172 KING EIDER. 



been filled with the eider-down. The females would 

 remain on the nests until knocked over with sticks. * 

 We are indebted for most of the specimens in the 

 collections of this country to the Arctic voyages, a 

 few being occasionally brought by the Greenland 

 and other whaling vessels, but good skins are by 

 no means easily procured. 



This Eider has the base of the bill much more 

 elevated, or rather it laterally rises upwards in the 

 form of two large oval protuberances, the plumage 

 of the forehead separating them ; these with the 

 bill are described as " vermilion red," when the bird 

 is newly killed ; the plumage between the tuber- 

 cules with a band surrounding them, and the base 

 of the maxilla with the form of a Y on the throat, 

 the acute end entering the fork of the mandible, 

 and the eyelid, velvet-black ; the cheeks and side of 

 the throat exterior to the Y pistachio-green, the 

 feathers having a structure similar to those of the 

 Eider; the crown, hind-head, and nape, bluish- 

 green ; neck, mantle, and lesser wing covers, white ; 

 breast rich cream-yellow ; the lower back, rump, 

 tail, scapulars, and quills, brownish black ; greater 

 covers and secondaries black ; tertials brownish 

 black, paler along the shafts and very much curved ; 

 belly, vent, and under tail-covers, black ; on each 

 side of the rump a large and conspicuous triangular 

 patch of yellowish white. In the female, the ge- 

 neral appearance somewhat resembles that of the 

 common Eider, the light parts are more rufous in 

 * Sabine. 



