196 The Goose-like Birds 



much of the wings white, while the center of the crown, collar, back, and lower 

 parts are black ; the female is brownish gray, with the speculum white. This 

 species was a typical sea Duck, frequenting the Atlantic coasts of North America, 

 probably breeding 1 from Labrador northward, but coming south in winter to 

 Long Island, New Jersey, and possibly the Great Lakes. So far as our knowl- 

 edge goes it has always been a rare bird, being shy and difficult of approach, but 

 as its flesh was rather tough and dry it was not highly esteemed as a game bird, 

 and so was not taken in any numbers, though Mr. George N. Lawrence states 

 that fifty or more years ago it "was not unusual to see them in Fulton Market, 

 without doubt killed on Long Island." There is very little authentic information 

 regarding its habits, and its nest and eggs are unknown ; in fact, all that apparently 

 remains of this fine Duck are some forty-one skins and a few bones scattered 

 among the museums and collections of the world. The causes which led to its 

 extinction are unknown and unaccountable, although various theories have 

 been proposed to explain it, such as destruction by an epidemic disease, the con- 

 tinued robbing of its nests by Indians, etc. 



Eider-Ducks. Passing over the Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus), 

 a strong-flying sea Duck of the northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere, we 

 come to the Eiders and Scoters, which are all strong-flying and diving sea Ducks. 

 Of these the Eider-Ducks are beyond question the most widely known and on 

 the whole the most interesting. Some six or seven forms may properly be classed 

 under this designation, these having been grouped under three genera, although 

 by some regarded as belonging to but a single generic type. Of these the so- 

 called true Eiders (Somateria) may be first considered. They are large and 

 strikingly handsome birds with conspicuous and strongly marked colors, 

 velvety black and snowy white, variegated with buff and delicate pale sea-green. 

 The males are mostly black below and white above, while the females and young 

 have the plumage barred with dusky and pale fulvous or rusty. Of the five 

 forms recognized the European Eider (5. moUissima) is perhaps the best known. 

 The male has the bill dull grayish olive in life and the breast a deep vinaceous buff. 

 It is a native of northern Europe. A subspecies of this is the Greenland Eider 

 (5. m. borealis}, which differs in having the bill orange yellowish and the breast 

 paler buff. It is found in eastern Arctic America, including Greenland, and 

 coming south to northern Labrador in summer and to the northern border of 

 the United States in winter. The American Eider (S. dresseri), which is also 

 found on the Atlantic coast of North America from Maine to Newfoundland and 

 southern Labrador, has the naked angle on the side of the forehead in the male 

 broad and rounded (this angle being narrow and pointed in the last two), and 

 the black of the head bordered beneath with pale green for its entire length. 

 Similar to this, but larger and distinguished by a V-shaped mark of black on the 

 throat, is the Pacific Eider (S. v-nigra), which ranges over northwestern America 

 from the Great Slave Lake westward, reaching also into eastern Asia. The King 

 Eider (5. spectabilis), of the northern portions of the Northern Hemisphere, has 

 the V-shaped mark of black on the throat as in the last, but may be known by 

 the light bluish gray on the top of the head. The Spectacled Eider (Arctonetta 



