SOMATERIA LABRADOMA. 217 



and upper posterior and lateral cervical are rather long, stiff, linear, and 

 terminated by a pencil of disunited stiffish filaments, with silky lustre." By 

 means of these you may tell an Eider Duck in the dark, by the touch. 



Perhaps the Pied Duck had better remain among the Eiders, in which 

 group it appears to be the least beautiful member. 



I come now to the subject of the down — rather an important feature in 

 an Eider Duck. 



Wilson says (vol. iii. p. 151): — ''The down from dead birds is little 

 esteemed, having lost its elasticity." This refers to S. moUissima. 



Macgillivray remarks (vol. v. p. 154) : — "All the Anatinse that 1 have 

 examined, as well as all the Anserinse (of which, however, the down, although 

 finer, is less elastic), are pretty much alike ; and the Eider-down has obtained 

 its celebrity simply because it is the only bird easily procured in quantity. 

 It has been alleged that ' as plucked from the living bird, it is much more 

 elastic than when taken from the body after death;' but on comparing some 

 down plucked from a Davis-Straits specimen now before me, with some 

 collected in nests in the Outer Hebrides, I find that the down from the dead 

 bird is rather superior in elasticity, probably because it has not been in any 

 degree crumpled or entangled, as the other has slightly been." 



The following comparison of the down on S. moUissima and aS. lahradoria 

 has been kindly made for me by Mr. T. J. Moore, from the examples in the 

 Liverpool Museum : — 



"CamptolcEmus (Labrador or Pied " Somateria moUissima 



Duck). (Eider). 

 "No. 920 (male).— Down beneath "No, 919 (male).— Down beneath 

 the black feathers of the belly the black feathers of the under- 

 dusky or brownish, becoming parts dusky brown, whiter on 



