KING EIDER. 25? 



The eider does not acquire its mature plumage till 

 either the third or fourth year. In the first year^ as 

 Montagu affirms, the back is white ; and the usual part, 

 except the crown, black ; the rest of the body variegated 

 with black and white. In the second year, the crown 

 becomes black, and the neck and breast spotted with 

 black and white. 



Captain Parry says that the Esquimaux Indians 

 catch these birds on the nest with springes made of 

 whalebone, and take the eggs wherever they can find 

 them. Captain Scoresby says a variety (?) he found 

 in Spitzbergen was very little larger than the common 

 domestic duck. 



The King Eider. 



Somateria spectabilis, Leach. 



Somateria spectabilis, Leach, Cat. Brit. Mus. Selby, HI. Brit, 

 Orn. ii. 342. North. Zool. li. 447. Bonap. Synop. p.* 332. 

 Anas spectabilis, Linn., Auct., Sabine, in Linn. Tr. xi. 553. 

 Le Canard a tete grise, Temm. Man. ii. 851. Grey-headed 

 Duck, Edwards, pi. 154. King Duck, Pennant, Latham, 

 &c. 



The manners of the king eider, the most simply 

 beautiful of the whole of this group, appear to be much 

 the same as those of the common eider ; but whether 

 there is an equal chance of keeping it alive in these 

 temperate latitudes, admits of some doubt, seeing that its 

 southern range is much more limited : it has not been 

 met with, in fact, to the south of the Orkney and the 

 neighbouring isles. Dr. Latham states, that in Green- 

 land it is as common as the ordinary eider ; and it ap- 

 pears to be distributed in all the arctic regions of both 

 Europe and America. 



Otho Fabricius mentions, that the natives of Green- 

 land hunt them both for their down and skins, in the 

 following manner : — On discovering a flock upon the 

 water, the natives assemble in their canoes, and begin 

 shouting and making as great a noise as possible : this 

 sudden outcry so frightens the birds, that, instead of 



