﻿Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlix. (1905), No. 8. 



VIII. On the Occurrence in Britain of the Pacific 

 Eider (Somateria v-nigrum, Gray). 



By Charles Oldham. 



Received and read February yfh, /Qoj. 



On December 17th, last year, Mr. Fred Stubbs, the 

 Secretary of the Oldham Field Naturalists' and Photo- 

 graphic Society, received a drake Eider in the flesh from 

 W. J. Clarke, a Scarborough dealer who supplies amateurs 

 with freshly-killed birds for stuffing. The black chevron 

 on the chin at once suggested to Mr. Stubbs that the bird 

 was not a Common Eider, Somateria mollissima (Linne), 

 and a reference to such ornithological works as he had at 

 hand convinced him that it was referable to the Pacific 

 Eider, vS. v-nigrum Gray, a species not hitherto recorded 

 for Europe. He at once wrote to the dealer for further 

 particulars, and by the same post wrote to ask if I would 

 like to see the bird before he skinned it. Taking advan- 

 tage of his kind offer, I was able to handle the bird in 

 the flesh on the following day. It is a male in full 

 adult plumage, and taped 24^ inches from the tip of 

 the bill to the end of the tail ; the wing (measured in a 

 straight line from the carpus to the tip of the longest 

 primary) is 1 1 inches. The bill of the Common Eider is 

 green, and the legs and toes dull green. The bill of the 

 Pacific Eider is said to be bright orange in life (1). Mr. 

 Stubbs told me that in his example the colour had faded 

 even since the previous day, and when I saw it on Decem- 

 ber 1 8th the bare spaces at the base of the bill were dirty 

 yellow, the webs of the feet yellowish green, and the toes 



March 31st, 1905. 



