142 ANATID^E 



Adult female nuptial. General shade of plumage 

 brown ; feathers of the head and neck being of a lighter 

 shade. The female of this species and that of the Com- 

 mon Eider are very much alike in colour ; in the former, 

 however, the central line of feathers on the upper segment 

 of the beak runs down to the level of the nostrils ; in the 

 Common Eider this line hardly reaches a point mid-way 

 between the base of the beak and the nostrils. 



Adult winter, male and female. Similar to the respec- 

 tive nuptial plumages. 



Immature, male and female. Kesembles the female in 

 plumage. 



BEAK. Orange-red ; ' basal tubercle ' same colour, mar- 

 gined with black. 



FEET. Orange-red ; webs darker. 



IRIDES. Brown. 



EGGS. Green, shading to greenish-grey : clutch, four 

 to six. 



AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 



TOTAL LENGTH ... ... ... 22 in. 



WING 10-5 



BEAK 1*25 ,, 



TARSO-METATARSUS 2 ,, 



EGG ... 2-5 x 1*8 in. 



STELLER'S EIDER. Somateria stelleri (Pallas). 



Coloured Figures. Gould, ' Birds of Great Britain,' vol. v, pi. 

 25; Dresser, 'Birds of Europe,' vol. vi, pi. 447; Lilford, 

 ' Coloured Figures,' vol. vii, pi. 54. 



This, the least of the three Eider Ducks in size, is an 

 exceedingly rare wande'rer from the Arctic seas. It has 

 been twice recorded from England. A male was killed on 

 February 10th, 1830, near Caistor, in Norfolk. It is now 

 in the Norwich Museum (A. Patterson, ' Zoologist,' 1900, p. 

 532). The second specimen was obtained from Filey Brigg, 

 Yorkshire, on August 15th, 1845, by the late Mr. G. N. 

 Curson. It is in the collection of Lord Scarsdale, at 

 Kedleston (Yarrell). 



