256 THE DIVING DUCKS 



tended by the duck alone, and dive with her in pursuit of food at a very early age, 

 chiefly no doubt fresh-water Mollusca. [P. c. B. J.] 



6. Song Period. The loud musical breeding-call of the male, while swim- 

 ming round and bowing to his mate, is chiefly heard from the earliest days of 

 spring up to about the end of June, but it is also freely uttered during the winter 

 months. [F. c. B. J.] 



COMMON-EIDER [Somatfria mollissima (Linnaeus). St. Cuthbert's 

 duck, annet ; dunter or dunter-duck (Shetlands) ; culver (Northumberland). 

 French, morillon ; German, Eider-Ente]. 



1. Description. The eider-duck may always be distinguished by the re- 

 markable forward extension of the feathers of the face along the sides of the beak, 

 to end in a point just beneath the middle of the lower border of the nostrils. The 

 sexes differ conspicuously, and there are striking seasonal changes of plumage in 

 the male. (PL 162.) Length 22 in. [558 mm.]. The male in full dress has the 

 head, neck, and upper parts white, relieved by a broad black bar extending 

 across the forehead backwards to form a broad band above the eye, and for- 

 wards along the sides of the beak. On each side of the hinder region of the head 

 and upper part of the neck is a broad patch of sea-green, and the lower back is 

 black. The fore-breast has a cinnamon tinge, and the whole of the rest of the 

 under parts is of a jet black. The long inner secondaries, which are falcated, are 

 white like the wing-coverts. Iris brown, beak and legs olive-green. In the eclipse 

 dress the white areas of the plumage are replaced by brown, though a few scattered 

 white feathers always remain. The female is of a buff or rufous colour, closely 

 striated on the head and neck with dark brown ; the back feathers are dark brown 

 margined with greyish, and the fore-breast and flanks are barred with dark brown, 

 while the breast and abdomen are of a rufous buff. The major whig-coverts and 

 secondaries are tipped with white, forming a double alar bar. The juvenile dress 

 resembles that of the female, but the alar bars are feebly developed ; the males 

 are distinguishable by the fact that the sides of the head are nearly black. The 

 downy young is of a dark brown above, paler brown below, and there is a more or 

 less conspicuous stripe of pale brown above the eye. [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. As a breeding species in the British Isles, the eider is 

 confined to the county of Northumberland in England, the coasts and islands of 

 Scotland, and one locality in Co. Donegal in Ireland. In Northumberland there is 

 a strong colony on the Fame Islands, and a few breed on the coast of Northumber- 



