FEMALE EIDER DUCK. 211 



over the wing; legs, short, yellow; webs of the feet, 

 dusky. 



Latham has given us the following sketch of the 

 gradual progress of the young males to their perfect 

 colours : " In the first year the back is white, and the 

 usual parts, except the crown, black ; but the rest of 

 the body is variegated with black and white. In the 

 second year the neck and breast are spotted black and 

 white, and the crown black. In the third the colours 

 are nearly as when in full plumage, but less vivid, and 

 a few spots of black still remaining on the neck ; the 

 crown, black, and bifid at the back part. 



" The young of both sexes are the same, being covered 

 with a kind of hairy down ; throat and breast, whitish ; 

 and a cinereous line from the bill through the eyes to 

 the hindhead." * 



268. ANAS MOLLISSIJfA, LINNAEUS AND WILSON. 



FEMALE EIDER DUCK. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXXI. FIG. III. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



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 



* Synopsis, iii, p. 471. 



