654 



Sommerfeldt told us, only non-breeding birds in brown plumage ; or occasionally, may be, we saw 

 one with a few white patches. 



" All the Eiders take two or three years to get into the full adult plumage ; and the imma- 

 ture birds appear to stay about in their winter-quarters, of which the Varanger seems to be chief 

 as regards Steller's Duck. The old birds move off in spring or the beginning of summer, and 

 the adult Drakes complete their full plumage before they go." 



Steller's Duck was originally described by Pallas in 1769, from specimens brought by Steller 

 from Kamschatka ; and in this work a figure of the male is given. Sparrmann, in 1786, described 

 it afresh under the name of Anas dispar. It was again renamed by Bonnaterre Anas occidua, 

 the latter appellation being given on account of its supposed abundance on the west coast of 

 North America, for which reason it was also commonly called Steller's Western Duck by many 

 authors. In 1834 Nuttall proposed the present species as the type of a new genus Macropus; 

 but this name having been preoccupied by Shaw for a genus of Kangaroos, falls, as does also the 

 generic name of Polysticta proposed by Mr. Eyton in 1836, as Polysticte had been already used 

 by Sir Andrew Smith in 1835 for a genus of Barbets. Ignorant of, or not heeding, the fate 

 which had befallen the names already proposed for the present species, Prince Bonaparte, in 

 1838, gave the generic name Stellaria for it; but this would not stand either, having been pre- 

 viously employed by Moller in 1832 for a genus of Mollusca, and so it remained for Mr. George 

 Robert Gray to form a new generic name in 1840, which was called Eniconetta (lege Heniconetta). 

 The bird, however, is a thorough Eider, and must be placed in the genus Somateria. Many good 

 figures of this Duck are given in the standard European books, foremost among them being a 

 beautiful drawing by Wolf in Mr. Gould's ' Birds of Great Britain ' (part 4). 



The figures in the Plate represent an adult male and female, the former being drawn from 

 a specimen in our own collection, obtained at the Varanger Fjord in May 1869, while the female 

 is from a splendid example in Dr. Tristram's collection, from the river Taimyr. The descrip- 

 tions of the adults are from the above-mentioned birds, the young female being described from a 

 specimen in our own cabinet, shot on the coast of Norway, while the male, not quite mature, is 

 in Professor Newton's collection. 



In the preparation of the above article we have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. Sharpe and Dresser. 

 a. <$ . Varanger Fjord, May 1869 (Meves). b. ?. Coast of Norway (A. Benzon). 



E Mus. H. B. Tristram, 

 a, b. 6. Varanger Fjord (A. Newton), c. ?. Taimyr river, Siberia (Middendorff). 



E Mus. A. Newton. 



a. 6 . Varanger Fjord (A. N.). 



