JZM1S MOLLISSIMA. 

 EIDER DUCK. 



[Plate LXXL Fig. 3, Female.] 

 PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 2707. 



THE difference of colour in these two birds is singularly great. 

 The female is considerably less than the male, and the bill does 

 not rise so high in the forehead; the general colour is a dark 

 reddish drab, mingled with lighter touches, and every where 

 spotted with black; wings dusky, edged with reddish; the greater 

 coverts and some of the secondaries are tipt with white; tail 

 brownish black, lighter than in the male; the plumage in general 

 is centred with bars of black, and broadly bordered with rufous 

 drab; cheeks and space over the eye light drab; belly dusky, 

 obscurely mottled with black; legs and feet as in the male. 



Van Troil, in his Letters on Iceland, observes respecting this 

 Duck, that " the young ones quit the nest soon after they are 

 hatched, and follow the female, who leads them to the water, 

 where having taken them on her back, she swims with them a 

 few yards, and then dives, and leaves them floating on the 

 water! In this situation they soon learn to take care of them- 

 selves, and are seldom afterwards seen on the land; but live 

 among the rocks; and feed on insects and sea weed." 



Some attempts have been made to domesticate these birds, 

 but hitherto without success. 



