274 MAMMALS AND BIRDS OF THE ARCTIC 



colour of the upper-part of the body being mainly black, and that of the 



under-parts white. 



This bird inhabits the Asiatic shores of the Arctic Ocean, whence it wanders to 



the Caspian Sea and surrounding steppes, where it feeds principally on saline plants. 



It is still a straggler to the British Isles, and in former days seems to have reached 



the valley of the Nile, since it appears in the old Egyptian paintings. 



Of a totally different type was the now extinct Labrador pied 



"' duck {Carnptolcemvbs labradorius), a species formerly abundant on 



the coast from which it takes its name, whence it migrated into the New England 



states, and perhaps still farther south. In colour this duck was chiefly black, 



with a white head, neck, and breast, a narrow black stripe down the middle of 



the head and a collar of the same round the neck. In the more soberly clad female 



the general tint was brownish, with a white wing-patch. The Labrador duck used 



to nest on rocky islets, where it was shot in such numbers during the breeding 



season that it became exterminated some fifty years ago. 



Another member of the group is Steller's eider (Somateria stelleri), 



SteUer's Eider. .01 \ /> 



remarkable for its narrow, vaulted beak, of which nearly the whole 



tip is occupied by the so-called nail. In colour the adult drake is bluish black, 



with much white on the wings, a violet wing-patch, a white head, a green area on 



the nape, and a chestnut breast. It nests on the Arctic coast between Alaska and 



the Taimyr Peninsula, in Russian Finland, and on Varanger Fjord, and in winter 



appears in the Baltic, straying occasionally as far south as the north of France. 



Better known is the common eider (S. mollissima), which has a 

 Eider. . v ! 



black crown with the middle line of feathers on the beak extending 



only half-way to the nostrils. The drake is white above and black below, the white 



extending to the lower half of the breast, and the beak, nape, and legs being green. 



The eider nests in the British Islands, in the islands off the coast of Denmark and 



Norway, and northwards within the Arctic Circle all round the pole, although the 



north-east American form (S. mollissima dresseri) is often regarded as a separate 



species, and the one inhabiting Arctic America and Greenland (S. m. borealis) as a 



second. 



Eiders are true sea-birds, always following the coast, and never crossing a 



peninsula to make a short cut. They fly well, and swim excellently, braving the 



wildest surf, although at the approach of a storm taking refuge on land. They are 



also expert divers, frequently remaining under water for two minutes, and going 



down 10 or 12 fathoms in search of the crabs and molluscs on which they chiefly 



subsist. Owing to the commercial value of their down, eiders are now protected in 



Europe, and are consequently no longer decreasing in numbers. The nest is a large 



structure of heather and other plants, including seaweed, grass, and moss, and lined 



with such a quantity of down, plucked from her own breast, that the female is not 



only completely concealed while sitting, but is able to cover the eggs when leaving 



the nest — a precaution never omitted. The first clutch of eggs consists of four, five, 



or sometimes from six to nine, but if there be more than ten in the nest, they are 



the product of two females, which either sit side by side or by turns. The male 



leaves his mate as soon as the eggs are laid, and goes out to sea to moult, returning 



when the female has finished her task. 



