﻿Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlix. (1905), No. H. 3 



flock at Graemsay by a wildfowler named George Suther- 

 land, who noticed that it had a black V-shaped mark on 

 the chin, was rather thick in the head and neck, and per- 

 haps whiter than usual on the back, but did not attach 

 any importance to these peculiarities. The exact date of 

 its occurrence is uncertain, but the bird had obviously 

 only been killed a few days when Mr. Stubbs skinned it* 



The history of the specimen is above suspicion, and 

 the occurrence of the species in Orkney, a place so remote 

 from its known habitat, the Behring Sea, is of great interest 

 to ornithologists. Mr. Stubbs is to be congratulated not 

 only on having added a species to the European avi- 

 fauna, but on his acumen in determining the identity of 

 the bird. He has generously presented it to the Oldham 

 Public Museum. 



It may not be out of place here to refer briefly to the 

 distribution of the four species of Eider which constitute 

 the genus Somateria, as given by Count Salvadori (1). 



The best known species, 5. mcllissima, ranges from 

 Iceland eastward to the shores of the Kara Sea ; it 

 migrates in winter to the Baltic, the shores of the North 

 Sea and the English Channel and occasionally strays to 

 Southern Europe. The Nearctic form of this species, the 

 5. mollissima borealis of A. E. Brehm, inhabits eastern 

 Arctic America, including Greenland, south to North 

 Labrador in summer, and to the Northern borders of the 

 United States in winter. 5. dresseri, Sharpe, occurs on 

 the Atlantic coast of North America from Maine to New- 

 foundland and South Labrador, ranging south in winter 

 to the Delaware and the Great Lakes. This species has 

 wandered to Europe ; an example obtained by Mr. T. M. 



* Mr. W. P. Pycraft's letter to Nature (vol. 71, p. 201), wherein it is 

 erroneously stated that the Eider was obtained at Scarborough on December 

 16th, was written before the matter had been thoroughly investigated. 



