EIDER DUCK. 351 



every other instance more or less mixed with small dry fir twigs and bits 

 of grass. When cleaned, the down of a nest rarely exceeds an ounce in 

 weight, although, from its great elasticity, it is so bulky as to fill a hat, 

 or if properly prepared even a larger space. The eggers of Labrador 

 usually collect it in considerable quantity, but at the same time make 

 such havock among the birds, that at no very distant period the traffic 

 must cease. 



Anas mollissima, Lmra. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 198 Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 845. 



FuLiGDLA MOLLISSIMA, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 388. 

 SoMATERiA MOLLISSIMA, Swaifis. and Richards, Fauna Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 448. 

 Eider Duck, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 406. 



Adult Male. Plate CCXLVI. Figs. 1.1. 



Bill about the length of the head, deeper than broad at the base, some- 

 what depressed towards the end, which is broad and rounded. Upper 

 inandible with a soft tumid substance at the base, extending upon the fore- 

 head, and deeply divided into two narrow rounded lobes, its whole sur- 

 face marked with divergent oblique lines, the dorsal outline nearly 

 straight and sloping to beyond the nostrils, then curved, the ridge broad 

 at the base, broadly convex towards the end, the edges perpendicular, ob- 

 tuse, with about fifty small lamellae on the inner side, the unguis very 

 large, elliptical. Nostrils submedial, oblong, large, pervious, nearer the 

 ridge than the edge. Lower mandible flattened, with the angle very long, 

 rather narrow and rounded, the dorsal line short and shghtly convex, the 

 edges with about sixty lamellae, the unguis very broad, elliptical. 



Head very large. Eyes of moderate size. Neck of moderate length, 

 rather slender at its upper part. Body bulky and much depressed. Wings 

 rather small. Feet very short, strong, placed rather far behind ; tarsus 

 very short, compressed, anteriorly having a series of scutella in its whole 

 length, and a partial series above the fourth toe, the rest reticulated with 

 angular scales. Hind toe small, with a free membrane beneath ; anterior 

 toes double the length of the tarsus, connected by reticulated membranes, 

 having a sinus at their free margins, the inner with a broad lobed margi- 

 nal membrane, the outer with a thickened edge ; all obKquely scutellate 

 above, the third and fourth about equal and longest. Claws small, that 

 of first toe very small and curved, of middle toe largest, all rather de- 

 pressed and blunt. 



