544 RAKE BRITISH BIRDS 



the same hue on the crown, enclosing a longitudinal bar of black running backwards along 

 the crown from the beak. A broad band of white surrounds the fore-part of the face 

 extending upwards in two narrow white lines on each side of the median black tar just referred 

 to ; there is a broken bar of Avhite on the side of the neck, and a white black-bordered 

 collar, and a white black-bordered crescent on each side of the base of the neck ; the 

 scapulars are white, and the major coverts are tipped with white ; the upper and under 

 tail-coverts are black. The female is of a dull clove-brown above, whitish brown below, and this 

 coloration is relieved only by an indistinct patch of white on the side of the head, and 

 a more or less distinctly white area around the base of the beak. [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. Breeds in Iceland, North-east Asia, and North America. In Europe 

 there is no certainly known breeding-place except Iceland, and Sabanaeffs statement that 

 it nests in the Urals is apparently erroneous. In Arctic Asia, however, Buturlin states 

 that it breeds from Lake Baikal to Saghalien and Kamtschatka, north to about 65 N., 

 and that he met with it in the Verkhoyansk! Mountains and the Upper Kolyma. It also breeds 

 in N. America from the Kuriles and Aleutian Isles, Alaska east to Hudson Strait, Greenland, 

 Labrador, and Newfoundland, while southward it ranges in the Rocky Mountains to Montana. 

 In winter it occurs rarely in Europe; four times in England (Yorks, one; Northumber- 

 land, three), also in Sweden, N. Russia, Germany, N. Italy, and Switzerland ; in Asia to Korea, 

 Japan, etc. ; and in America to the middle States of the Union and California. [F. c. R. j.] 



KING-EIDER [Somateria spectdbilis (Linnaeus). French, canard a tete grise; German, 

 Pracht-Ente]. 



1. Description. Distinguished at a glance by the upgrowth of the side of the beak, 

 which rises in the form of a great tongue-shaped plate far above the level of the culmen. 

 The sexes differ conspicuously. The male has the crown and occiput lavender-grey, the 

 side of the head a delicate sea-green. The area surrounding the tongue-shaped crest of 

 the beak and the throat are black. The fore-neck is of a pale cinnamon, the back white, and 

 the wing-coverts white. The scapulars, breast, flanks, and abdomen are black, but there 

 is a large white patch on each side at the Base of the tail. Iris yellow ; beak reddish orange ; 

 legs and toes orange-red. The female differs from that of the common-eider in that the 

 feathers of the side of the beak are not continued forward beyond the level of the feathers 

 at the base of the culmen. Iris yellow ; beak greenish brown ; legs and toes ochreous. 

 [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. Bullock stated that he found a nest in 1812 on Papa Westray in the 

 Orkneys, but further confirmation is requisite before this record can possibly be accepted. The 

 supposed case of nesting on Iceland, recorded by Faber, though less improbable, is by no 

 means satisfactorily proved. It does, however, nest sparingly on Spitzbergen, and, according 

 to Buturlin, also on Kolguev, and in some numbers on Novaya Zeinlya; while in Asia it 

 breeds along the northern shores of Siberia (Kanin and Yalmal Peninsulas, Taimyr, Great 

 Liakoff Isles, lower Lena and Kolyma) eastward, according to Buturlin, to the Commander 

 Isles and Kamtschatka. In America it breeds on the northern shores of Greenland and on 

 the Labrador coast ; also on the Arctic coasts and islands of N. America west to Alaska, where 

 it breeds sparingly, and north to lat. 82 27' in Grinnell Land (H. W. Feilden). On migra- 

 tion it occurs on the Scandinavian coasts, the Fseroes, in the Baltic and N. Russia, as well as 

 casually in Germany, Denmark, France (twice), Italy (four times), etc. ; while in America it 

 usually ranges south to the Great Lakes and the north-eastern United States, but has 

 occurred casually south to California, Georgia, and Iowa. In England six occurrences, Scot- 

 land fifteen or twenty, and Ireland five. [F. c. u. J.] 



