OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 437 



Family ANATID^E. Genus SOMATERIA. 



Subfamily 



KING EIDER. 



SOMATEEIA SPECTABILIS (Linnaus). 

 PLATE XXXIX. 



Anas spectabilis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 195 (1766). 



Somateria spectabilis (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 158 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vi. 

 p. 643, pi. 446 (1877) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 621 (1885) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. 

 ed 4, iv. p. 463 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 183 (1894) ; 

 Lilford, Col. Pig. Brit. B. pt. xxx. (1895) ; Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii.' p. 

 432 (1895) ; Seebohm, Col. Pig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 54, pi. 9 (1896) ; Sharpe, Handb. 

 B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 41 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British : The King Eider is an acci- 

 dental straggler to the British Islands, and so frequently observed during 

 summer as to suggest the possibility of its breeding within our limits. It has 

 been seen and obtained in various localities from Plymouth to the Orkneys and 

 Shetlands, although it is much rarer in Ireland, where only four instances of its 

 occurrence are on record. It has been observed at the Fame Islands in summer ; 

 and we met with two pairs during June at St. Kilda. Foreign Extreme northern 

 Palsearctic and Nearctic regions, more southerly in winter. It breeds on the 

 islands off the coast of Northern Siberia, Nova Zembla, Franz-Josef Land, 

 probably Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the islands and coasts of Arctic America, 

 perhaps as far north as land extends. It is a more or less accidental visitor in 

 winter to the coasts of Norway, the Baltic, Denmark, Holland, and France, to 

 the Faroes, Iceland, Labrador, New Jersey, the Great Lakes, and California. 



Allied forms. None more closely allied than the Eider Duck and its 

 representative forms treated of in the preceding chapter. 



Habits. The King Eider, although it resembles the Common Eider very 

 closely in its general habits, is not quite such an exclusively marine species, and 

 is occasionally found on fresh water, yet only, so far as I can determine, on such 

 vast expanses as the Great Lakes in North America. It is almost if not quite as 

 sedentary as the Common Eider, and does not wander far beyond the limits of 

 open water during winter. Most of those that do straggle south at that season 



