KING DUCK. 45 



land 'a life on the ocean wave.' The down is almost as 

 much esteemed as that of the Eider Duck by the Greenlanders, 

 by whom also the bird is considered as an excellent one to 

 eat. 'The King Eider is "usually sociable, and even neighbourly, 

 towards its congener, except during the breeding-season, when 

 the male bird is too irritable and quarrelsome to be endured 

 in company with the peaceful Eider: when one of this species 

 mingles among the encampment of the Eider Ducks, the 

 persons interested in their welfare are obliged to destrov it.' 



They feed on Crustacea and marine insects. 



The nest of the King Duck, placed on rocks near the 

 sea, is lined with the down of the female, and composed 

 externally of sea-weeds or sticks, with grass or mosses. 



The eggs are of a pale green colour. They appear to be 

 from four to six in number. The male bird leaves the care 

 of them to the hen, and repairs to the sea. 



In some parts of America, Wilson says that the nests 

 are so crowded together, that a person can scarcely walk 

 without treading on them. 



Male; length, two feet and half an inch; bill, deep red, 

 the knob at the base, which is flat on the top and compressed 

 on the sides, but divided into two, the elevated parts velvet 

 black, encircled with deep black, which colour is continued 

 thpough the eye, and surrounds a green triangular-shaped 

 mark, which proceeds from the base of the bill to below the 

 eye; the tooth is dull yellowish red; at the base of the upper 

 bill the feathers are light green, passing backwards on each 

 side of the neck and taking in half the eye, beneath which 

 and round to the chin the collar is dull white; iris, yellow. 

 Head on the crown and behind, pale bluish ash-colour, on the 

 sides green ; neck on the upper part, white, on the lower dull 

 yellow; nape, white; chin, white, with a small black streak 

 slanting back and downwards; throat, white. Breast above, 

 pale dull yellowish, below black there is a round white spot 

 on the sides behind the legs. Back on the upper part of the 

 middle, white, the remainder black. 



Greater wing coverts, black, with a white patch on the 

 middle, the shafts deep ferruginous, on each side of the outer 

 ones a patch of white; lesser wing coverts, white; primaries, 

 dusky black, tinged with red on the inner webs; secondaries, 

 dusky black they curve downwards over the quills. Ter- 

 tiaries, dusky black, with a green reflection; their ends, as 

 also the long scapulars, fall in a drooping manner over that 



