ONTARIO. 



The Eider-Duck is essentially a bird of the sea coast, breeding 

 abundantly along the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

 Its visits to these inland waters are made during the season of 

 migration, when the movements of all migratory birds are con- 

 siderably affected by the prevailing winds. On Lake Ontario 

 it is only a casual visitor in winter, and seldom if ever seen there 

 in mature plumage. 



The one in my collection is a young male in the garb of the 

 female ; I shot it from the pier of the canal at the entrance to 

 the bay a few years since, they were seen more or less all that 

 winter, but they were known to be " fishy " and there being 

 nothing attractive in their dress, very few were killed, though 

 they allowed a nearer approach than other waterfowl are dis- 

 posed to do. 



54 SOMATERIA SPECTABILIS (LINN.). 162. 

 King Eider. 



Bill with broad squarish, nearly vertical frontal processes bulging angu- 

 larly out of line with culmen. Male in breeding attire, black, including a 

 forked chin-patch, a frontal band, and small space round eye ; and the neck 

 and fore-parts of the body, part of inter-scapulars, of wing coverts and of 

 lining of wings, and a flank patch, white, creamy on the jugulum, greenish 

 on sides of head ; crown and nape, fine bluish-ash. Female resembling that 

 of the Common Eider, but bill different. Size of the last or rather less. 



HAB. Northern part of Northern Hemisphere, breeding in the Arctic 

 regions ; in North America, south casually in winter to New Jersey and the 

 Great Lakes. 



I mention this species more as a bird to be looked for, than 

 one which has actually been taken in Ontario, as I have no pos- 

 itive record of its occurrence within the province : that it has 

 been here and passed unnoticed may fairly be presumed, when 

 we consider that it was taken by Giraud at Long Island, and 

 Mr. Allen mentions in his notes that as many as eighteen were 

 taken in Lake Erie near Buffalo in Nov., 1879. A pair were in 

 the collection sent from Toronto to Paris in 1867, but I am not 



65 



