DUCKS. 



353 



the female. In the male bird, of which the length is from 22 to 26 inches, the 

 prevailing colour of the head and neck in the ordinary dress is white, with an 

 oval brown patch on the sides of the latter ; the breast, middle of the back, rump, 

 and middle tail-feathers are black ; the scapulars are striped with white ; and the 

 remaining tail-feathers and under-parts pure white. The female is a more sombre- 

 coloured bird, with the sides of the head white and those of the neck brown. 



As its Latin name implies, the long-tailed duck is an essentially Arctic species, 

 ranging to the most northerly known lands of both hemispheres, and not generally 

 migrating very far south in winter, although it has been known to reach Northern 

 Italy. Not uncommon as a winter visitor to Britain, it regularly frequents at 

 that season the Caspian, Northern China, Japan, and the northern United States. 

 Found in numbers on the Kara Sea, and breeding in Novaia Zemlia, Northern 

 Russia, and all through North Siberia, this duck is mainly marine in its habits, 

 feeding on molluscs, crustaceans, and small fishes, in search of which it dives with 

 remarkable expertness. During the breeding-season it resorts, however, to fresh- 

 waters, on the margins of which its nests are constructed among low bushes. The 

 note of the male is loud, but almost indescribable in words; and when flying 

 the members of this sex are said to present an exceedingly graceful appearance, 

 moving with very rapid strokes of the wings, with the long tail-feathers 

 floating behind. 



Well known on account of the beautifully soft down collected 

 from their nests, the eiders, Somateria, are best characterised by the 

 elongated scapulars and emerald or pale green markings on the heads of the males ; 

 these two characters serving to distinguish them from other diving-ducks. Both 

 sexes may be recognised by the beak being shorter than the head, and swollen and 

 elevated at the base, with small and lateral nostrils, but more especially by the 

 feathers of the forehead extending downwards nearly to the nostrils between its 

 divided upper portion. Generally, the prevailing colours of the plumage of the 

 males are black and white. The eiders are now represented by six well-defined 

 species, confined to the northern regions of the Old World; three of which 

 occur in the British Islands, although two are more occasional visitors. The 

 common or true eider (8. mollissima), which is mainly confined to the Eastern 

 Hemisphere, and is the only resident British species, may be recognised by the 

 upper part of the back and scapulars of the male being white in the breeding 

 plumage, while the top of the head and under-parts are black ; the female being 

 pale rufous brown, with darker markings. Young males are at first like the 

 females ; but in the first year, as shown in the upper figures of our illustration on 

 next page, the wing-coverts and secondaries become white, and in the third year 

 the full plumage is assumed. In summer, with the second moult, old males become 

 almost black. In the king-eider (S. spectabilis), which is circumpolar, although 

 but a rare visitor to Britain, the male in breeding-plumage has the upper part of 

 the back white, but the elongated scapulars black, and also a black chevron on the 

 throat with its apex on the chin. On the other hand, in the handsome Steller's 

 eider (S. stelleri), which is a still more exclusively Arctic bird, the adult male in 

 nuptial plumage has the whole back black, the long scapulars white on their inner, 

 and bluish black on their outer webs, and a bluish black collar on the neck. 

 VOL. iv. 23 



