OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 433 



Family ANATIDyE. Genus SOMATKRIA. 



Subfamily 



COMMON EIDER. 



SOMATEEIA MOLLISSIMA- (Linnaeus) . 

 PLATE XXXIX. 



Anas mollissima, Lynn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 198 (176G). 



Somateria mollissima (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 147 (1852); Dresser, B. Eur. vi. 

 p. 629, pi. 445 (1871) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 616 (1885) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. 

 ed. 4, iv. p. 457 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Pig. Brit. B. pt. xxii. (1892) ; Dixon, Nests 

 and Eggs Brit. B. p. 244 (1893) ; Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 425 (1895) ; 

 Seebohm, Col. Pig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 54, pi. 9 (1896) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit, 

 iii. p. 37 (1896). 



Geographical distribution British : The Common Eider is a rare 

 straggler in winter to the southern portions of the British Islands, including the 

 west, east, and south coasts of England, and all the coasts of Ireland. It breeds 

 from the Fame Islands locally northwards to the Orkneys and Shetlands, and 

 along the west coast of Scotland, including the Outer Hebrides and St. Kilda, as 

 far south on the mainland as Inverness-shire. Foreign : Northern and western 

 confines of Palsearctic region, and northern and eastern confines of Nearctic 

 region, more southerly in winter. It breeds on the shores of the Kara Sea, 

 Franz-Josef Land, Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, the coasts of Norway and Denmark, 

 the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland up to lat. 81^, thence across Baffin Bay and 

 Davis Strait, along the coast of the mainland and on the islands in the Arctic 

 Ocean as far east as Banks Land and the Coppermine River. AVherever the 

 winters are sufficiently severe to seal the water it draws southwards, and is then 

 found in the Baltic, the basin of the North Sea, and the English Channel, and 

 in the New World as far south as the coast of Maine. It is said very exception- 

 ally to wander as far south as the Mediterranean, and has been recorded on 

 doubtful authority from the Swiss lakes. 



Allied forms Somateria dresseri, an inhabitant in summer of Labrador 



and Newfoundland, drawing south in winter as far as the coast of Maine. A 



mere local race said to differ from the Common Eider in having the feathers on 



the forehead prolonged in a narrow line only half as far as those on the side 



28 



