PACIFIcElDER 313 



LIFE STORY 



The Pacific Eider is the largest of our ducks, both males and females 

 averaging $i/ 2 pounds. In general appearance it is very similar to the 

 American and Northern Eiders; the male has a black V-shaped chevron 

 on the throat which is lacking in the American and most Northern 

 Eiders, the bill-processes are slightly different and there is a pronounced 

 difference in the colour of the bill. Apart from these variations the two 

 species are practically identical. Proof of the common ancestry of these 

 three eiders and the King Eider is evident from the close similiarity of 

 their markings. The ranges of the Pacific and Northern Eiders may over- 

 lap somewhere in the Arctic Archipelago and interbreeding between the 

 two forms may occur. 



Like the Northern and American Eiders, this species builds its nests 

 in the vicinity of salt water. The nest is usually a depression in the 

 ground plentifully lined with soft grey down; the eggs are similar to 

 those of the other species and average 2.99 by 1.98 inches. The number 

 of eggs is said to vary from 5 to 10, but it is probable that the larger 

 number is unusual. Incubation is performed by the female alone; the 

 males desert the females at this time and gather in flocks by themselves 

 on the sea coast to moult into the eclipse plumage. Mr. Hersey in notes 

 quoted by Bent (1925) recounts coming across a female with a brood of 

 young on a small lagoon. In her endeavours to lead her brood to safety 

 the mother duck was absolutely fearless. He stood on the bank and 

 watched her for twenty minutes as "She splashed about in the water, 

 making quite a commotion, all the while calling in a low guttural tone. 

 Some of the young swam around her while others dove. . . . After 

 considerable difficulty she got her brood around her and started to swim 

 away, but the young did not follow and, after swimming some 12 or 15 

 feet and calling, she returned and the performance was reoeated. 

 Whether the actions of the young were due to panic or inability to 

 realize the presence of danger I could not tell, but they appeared to me 

 to be decidedly stupid. I know of no other duck, not excepting the Old- 

 squaw, which at times seems to be devoid of any sense of danger, that 

 would not have led her young to safety in a fraction of the time it took 

 this eider." 



In the Hooper Bay region, Alaska, Conover found these ducks nest- 

 ing; he says: "On May 28, the first nest was discovered, and on June 28, 

 the first downy young were seen, a brood of six, a day or two old, found 

 in a very small pond back in the low hills. At my approach the female 

 flopped over the water despairingly, but when I fired at one of the young, 

 she left the vicinity immediately. The downies could dive very well, and 

 in half a minute no sign of life appeared on the surface of the pond. 

 Walking carefully along the shore, a young bird was soon discovered flat- 

 tened out in the grass at the water's edge. It made no effort to escape 

 as I bent over, evidently thinking itself well hidden. Following around 

 the entire shore line of the pond, the entire brood was soon captured. 

 That the female of this species may not make a very devoted mother, 



