WILD FOWL. 



99 



THE EIDER DUCK. 



FuUgula Molissima. — Vulgo, Squaw Duck. 



This well-known species, famous for its admirable down, is 

 common to both continents. A few pair breed on the coast of 

 Maine, and thence northward to Labrador. It is a rare visitant, 

 however, any where along the Atlantic coasts of the United 

 States ; is seldom indeed seen southward of New- York, and 

 hardly ever of New-Jersey. 



Its flesh is intolerably oily and fishy ; and but for its down it 

 is worthless. 



To the Esquimaux and the Greenlander alone can it be re- 

 garded in the light of game. Its peculiarity, and the fact of its 

 occasionally breeding on the coast of the States, which no other 

 of the ^ed^-di\ic\is—fu.ligula — are known to do, alone induces me 

 to give it a place in this work. 



GOLDEN-EYE DUCK. 



FuUgula Clangula. 



*' Male. 20.31i. Female, 16.23. 



" Abundant during the winter on all the running streams of 

 the interior, as well as along the Atlantic coast, as far south as 

 the Gulf of Mexico. Breeds in the high noithern latitudes, ac- 

 cidental in the northeastern districts, Rocky Mountains, Colum- 

 bia River. 



" Adult male in winter : 



" Bill black. Iris bright yellow. Feet orange yellow, webs 

 dusky, claws black. Head and upper part of the neck deep- 

 green, changing to purple in certain lights. Back, posterior 

 scapulars, inner secondaries, edge of wing, alula, primary 

 coverts, primary quills, and four or five outer secondaries, black ; 

 the back being darker and glossy, the wing feathers tipped with 



