641 



13 



her body completely denuded of down. This method of procuring it is had recourse to because 

 the down of the dead bird loses its elasticity, and is of comparatively little value. The hen bird 

 gives from eight to nine ounces of down to a nest ; but when cleansed this weight is diminished by 

 half. The value of the uncleaned down is about 8s. a pound, and the cleaned down about 19s. the 

 pound. The annual produce is about 6000 pounds weight of down, valued at about £5000. 

 Sometimes one little holm will give its owner an annual income of £150; and such is the care 

 taken of these useful birds that during the hatching-season no guns are allowed to be fired in 

 their vicinity, and foreign vessels arriving are forbidden to fire salutes for the same reason." 



As there is great difficulty in recognizing the females of the common Eider Duck and the 

 King Eider, we quote the following remarks, recently published by Mr. J. Edmund Harting in 

 his paper on the Barrow collection at Oxford (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 118); and we herewith acknow- 

 ledge our obligation to the Zoological Society for allowing us the use of the woodcut which 

 accompanied the author's remarks on the above-mentioned occasion. Mr. Harting observes : — 



" The female of the King Duck, although as a rule somewhat smaller and redder, so closely 

 resembles the female of the Eider, as to be with difficulty recognized except by comparison. A 

 good mark of distinction, however, is the relative position of the ridge of feathers which runs 

 down the centre and each side of the bill. In the Eider the centre ridge (fig. 2, a a) is shorter 

 than the lateral ridges b b ; in the King Duck (fig. 1) the reverse is the case." 



Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 



laHilllSB 



8«ra 



H 



Upper surface of bill of King Duck. Upper surface of bill of Eider Duck. 



Eider Ducks vary according to locality. Thus Professor Newton writes : — 

 " Scoresby remarks on the small size of the Greenland Eiders ; and, in his last publication, 

 Dr. Malmgren has some remarks on the same subject. He gives a table showing that the 

 dimensions of the bill in four examples from Spitzbergen are constantly less than in three from 

 the Baltic. There is, however, no difference in the plumage of the birds from the two localities. 

 He states that examples procured by Herr Meves on the coast of Holstein in winter resemble 

 those from Spitzbergen more nearly in the form of the bill, but differ by being larger in body. 

 I unfortunately did not bring home any Spitzbergen specimens ; I am therefore unable to test 

 these observations." 



We have already called attention to the distinction of the Eider Duck of America from the 

 European bird ; and the accompanying woodcut will best serve to illustrate the differences 

 between these two Somaterios. 



