THE KING EIDER. 



523 



This is another of our Sea Ducks that is very abundant 

 in the bays and inlets of our coast during the fall and win- 

 ter months, and until April in the spring. 



The history of its 

 habits and distri- 

 bution is so well 

 known, that any ac- 

 count here is hard- 

 ly needed. 



It breeds in abun- 

 dance in Labrador 

 and other northern 

 portions of the con- 

 tinent, and a few pass the season of incubation on the 

 islands in the Bay of Fundy ; this being the nearest point 

 to our coast that it breeds in at present, although it is said 

 to have formerly reared its young on the islands off Cape 

 Ann in Massachusetts, and off the coast of Maine. 



The nest is placed on the ground beneath the shelter of 

 a low bush or thick bunch of weeds or grass. It is con- 

 structed, first, of a thin layer of grasses and weeds, on 

 which the female deposits a thick layer of down, which she 

 pulls from her breast. This is deeply hollowed ; and in this 

 warm receptacle, the eggs, from six to eight or ten in num- 

 ber, are deposited. These are of a dirty pale-green color, 

 and their form is varied from ovate to a sharply pointed 

 ovoidal. Their dimensions vary from 3.22 by 2.10 inches 

 to 2.82 by 1.98 inch. 



SOMATERIA SPECTABILIS. Lead. 

 The King Eider. 



Anas spectabilis, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 195. Gm., I. 567. 



Fuligula (Somateria) spectabilis, Bonaparte. Syn. (1828), 389. Nutt. Man., II. 

 (1834) 414. 



Fuligula spectabilis, Audubon. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 523. lb., Birds Am., VI. 

 (1843) 347. 



