522 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



point; bill of female not very dissimilar, lacking the swelling at the base; color 

 entirely black all over, without any white ; bill black along the edges and tip ; the 

 swollen basal portion red to beyond the nostrils. 



Female. Brown; lighter on sides of head, throat, and under surface of body, 

 where the feathers have each an obscure dusky spot. 



Length, twenty-three and eighty one-hundredths inches ; wing, nine and twenty 

 one-hundredths ; tarsus, one and seventy-eight one-hundredths; 'commissure, two 

 and fourteen one-hundredths inches. 



This species is also known on the coast by the name of 

 Coot. It is far less abundant than the other, but has all 

 the habits of that bird. It also associates with it, and is a 

 very expert diver ; sinking beneath the surface of the water, 

 at the flash of a gun, before the shot reaches it. I know 

 nothing of its breeding habits, and have no eggs by me for 

 description. 



SOMATERIA, LEACH. 



tiomateria, LEACH, in Fleming's Philos. Zool. (1822). (Type Anas mollissima, L.) 

 Bill much compressed, tapering to the tip ; the nail enormously large, and forming 

 the terminal portion of the bill, and much decurved; the feathers of forehead 

 advancing forward in an acute long point, separating on each side a frontal exten- 

 sion or linear process, or the feathers of the cheek may be said to extend a 

 considerable distance along the commissural edge of the bill; nostrils situated 

 anterior to the middle of the commissure; tail rather pointed, but short, of fourteen 

 feathers. 



SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA. Leach. 

 The Eider Duck. 



Anas mollissima, Wilson. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 122. 



Fuligula (Somatena) mollissima, Bonaparte. Syn. (1828), 388. Nutt. Man., II. 

 (1834) 407. 



Fuligula mollissima, Audubon. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 344; V. 611. lb., Birds 

 Am., VI. (1843) 349. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Tail of fourteen feathers ; prevailing color white ; the under surface and sides of 

 body, hinder part of back, rump, and tail, black; wings white on both surfaces, 

 except the quills, which are black ; narrow margin inferiorly of the frontal process 

 of bill and the forehead violet-black, this color bifurcating opposite the middle of the 

 eye, and continued broadly on each side the head to the nape, the color extend- 

 ing a little below the eye ; the white below and behind the black glossed with trans- 

 parent emerald-green ; the interspace white ; iris brown. 



Length, twenty-six inches ; wing, eleven and twenty-four one-hundredths ; tar- 

 sus, one and eighty-two one-hundredths ; commissure, two and fifty-three one-hun- 

 dredths inches. 



