LONG-TAILED DUCK 



251 



and strongly accented. In its summer haunts it feeds on water-plants. 

 The drake does not leave his mate after the eggs have all been laid, 

 but assists in incubation and in protecting the young. The nest is 

 a slight hollow in the ground with down for lining ; the eggs are 

 pale buffish green in colour. 



Mr. Abel Chapman says that, like other sea-ducks, this species 

 gets its food by diving, but is not a bottom-feeder like the eider and 

 scaup, which cannot feed in water more than two or three fathoms 

 deep. The long-tail feeds on small marine animals floating in the 

 water, and is hence able to feed in deep as well as shallow seas 

 at a distance from land. 



Eider Duck. 



Somateria mollisima. 



FIG. 84. EIDEB DUCK. ^ natural size. 



Bill greenish ; down its centre, halfway to the nostrils, is a wedge 

 of feathers which are black, like those of the forehead and crown ; 

 the latter bisected by a white line running to the pale green nape, 

 and divided by another white line from a green patch on each side 

 of the neck ; cheeks, back, and wing-coverts white ; long sickle- 

 shaped secondaries yellowish w r hite ; wing-feathers, rump, and tail 



