NATATORES. SOMATERIA. 337 



upon the forehead, and another on the back part of the 

 neck. Legs and toes reddish-orange. 

 The Female is of a sooty-brown, lightest about the neck 

 and belly. The prominences on the bill are small, and 

 of a dusky colour. 



GENUS SOMATERIA, LEACH. EIDER. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



BILL swollen and elevated at the base, extending high up 

 the forehead, forked or divided by an acute angle of feathers. 

 Before the nostrils strait, semi-cylindrical, and narrow ; ter- 

 minated by a strong vaulted nail, hooked, and rounded at 

 the extremity. Both mandibles laminato-dentate, with the 

 plates strong and widely set. Nostrils lateral, oval, small, 

 placed towards the middle of the bill. 



Wings of mean length, acute, with the first quill-feather 

 the longest. Tail of fourteen feathers. 



Legs short ; feet of four toes, three before and one be- 

 hind ; the front toes webbed, and the outer nearly as long 

 as the middle one ; hind toe with a long lobated membrane. 



The Eiders are distinguished from the preceding genus 

 by the variegated or piebald plumage of the male birds, and 

 by the form of the bill, which is more cylindrical and nar- 

 rowed towards the tip, and armed with a strong hooked nail. 

 The elevated part at its base (in one species rising into very 

 large lobes) is divided by a narrow stripe of feathers, form- 

 ing, as it were, a projecting angle of the forehead. The la- 

 teral parts of the upper mandible are also without that de- 

 cided tumescence that is seen in the nearly allied species of 

 Scoters. These birds inhabit the northern regions of the 

 globe, and are found to extend to the highest latitudes yet 



VOL. n. Y 



