SEA DUCKS. 227 



So7nateria mollzssima.—Tion. Eider Duck. Sea Duck. 



" Bill with long club-shaped frontal 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 

 breast, lower back, rump, tail, quills and large forked patch on the 

 crown black. Female with the bill less developed, general plum- 

 age an extremely variable shade of reddish-brown or ochry brown, 

 speckled, mottled and barred with darker. Male in certain stages 

 resembling the female. Length about two feet." {Coues.) 



The reputation of this bird is world-wide. And it is not from 

 any peculiarity that it possesses, but because it ministers (unwill- 

 ingly, to be sure) to the comfort of man. There are four species 

 of this genus in the United States, but two of which are found upon 

 the Atlantic coast. The king eider is the rarer of the two, and 

 the most northern. Plain eider duck is the one most common, and 

 the one referred to here. We naturally associate them with ice- 

 bergs and Icelanders, as they form such prominent features in 

 tales of Arctic adventure. 'Tis true vast numbers have their sum- 

 mer dwelling-place in the Polar regions, but even those who seek 

 a breeding place in Greenland, Iceland or Labrador, seek a less 

 rigorous climate as winter approaches. The range of the eider 

 duck is from the coast of New England to the Arctic regions. It 

 is only in winter, however, that we are favored with their presence, 

 and then they keep well aloof from the shore. By the first of May 

 they leave us, and seek a place to make their nest and rear their 

 young along the shores of the Bay of Fundy, Newfoundland, and. 

 Labrador, though the first eggs are not laid till the last of that 

 month. 



One of their most southern breeding places is upon one of the 

 outlying islands of the Grand Manan group, called " White 

 Horse," from a fancied resemblance to that beast. From the 

 rocks at the water's edge many tortuous, narrow paths lead to the 

 grassy thickets, and these paths invariably lead to a nest, some- 

 times two'. Upon the ground they place a few pieces of grass 

 stalks, with other fine material, in a slight depression of which the 

 eggs are laid, from three to five. These eggs are about three 



