386 FEATHERED GAME 



their stay a fuU-plumaged male is a rarity. 

 The male goes on ahead to prepare the smmner 

 residence for his lady? Not exactly! When 

 the house-keeping cares show on the family 

 horizon, a cloud no larger than a man's hand, 

 Mr. Eider joins with other worthless good-for- 

 naughts to spend his days and nights away from 

 home, living almost entirely at sea until the 

 nesting and moulting seasons are over and his 

 offspring have become self-supporting. 



These are the largest of our ducks, eminently 

 fitted to take care of themselves, and one of the 

 few species which seem to be holding their own 

 in the struggle against the destroyer. 



The difference between the American and the 

 Old World type, represented by the Greenland 

 Eider, which is occasionally taken on our coast, 

 and is perhaps a more northern race than our 

 own, lies principally in the shape of the frontal 

 process and bill; these, in the American bird, 

 are heavier and the tips of the nose ornaments 

 are rounder and fuller than in the European 

 species. One must be a close observer, how- 

 ever, to note the difference and distinguish the 

 visitor among a number of our own birds. 



