350 NATATORES. 



and, therefore, it is entitled to a place in the list of our 

 native birds. 



It is rather less than the other, and easily distinguishable 

 from it both by the bill and the plumage. The lateral pro- 

 longations of the bill on the forehead are arched, ridged, and 

 furrowed ; and the bill and feet are bright reddish orange, 

 but the terminal parts of the plates towards the forehead are 

 black. The feathers at the base of the bill, over the eye, and 

 partly down the sides of the neck, are bright green, meeting 

 in front, and passing gradually into dull white on the chin, 

 which is marked with a cheveron bar of black ; the crown 

 and nape are ash colour ; the middle of the back is black, the 

 coverts dusky, with a white patch in the centre ; the quills 

 black, and the tertiaries produced and pendent over them as 

 in the common eider. The tail is short, wedge-shaped, and 

 black ; the lower part of the neck and the breast whitish ; 

 the belly and vent black. The female is brownish on the 

 upper part, with the centres of the feathers dusky ; the plates 

 of the bill are not so prominent, or so highly coloured ; the 

 produced feathers in the wings are also wanting, and the 

 size is smaller. The males of this and the common eider do 

 not get their distinguishing character till the second or third 

 year. 



THE WESTERN EIDER (Somateria dispar). 



This bird is so rare with us that it can be considered only 

 as a very accidental straggler ; but it deserves notice as being 

 a stranger from a far country, or rather as an aerial voyager 

 from the most distant sea. It has sometimes been classed 

 and described as a pochard, but its characters, its haunts, and 

 its habits, nay, even its very colours, are those of the eiders. 

 It is a native of the northern part of the Pacific, towards 

 Behring's Straits, and is found on the north-west coast of 

 America, on that of Kamtschatka, and on the intermediate 



