ANATIDA. 463 
STELLER’S EIDER. 
SOMATERIA STELLERI (Pallas). 
This Arctic species, formerly called Steller’s Western Duck, occa- 
sionally wanders to the temperate portions of Europe in winter, and 
has twice occurred in England. The first example, a male in nearly 
adult plumage, was killed on February roth 1830, at Caistor in 
Norfolk, and having been afterwards presented to the Norwich 
Museum by the Rev. George Stewart, formed the subject of 
Yarrell’s (and the present) illustration. ‘The second was shot while 
sitting alone on the sea off Filey Brigg, Yorkshire, on August 15th 
1845, by the late Mr. G. N. Curzon, and is in the collection of his 
brother, Lord Scarsdale, at Kedleston, where I have examined it. 
This bird was beginning to moult, the white feathers on the head 
and the black marks.on the chin and neck—characteristic of the 
male—being just visible; but the upper parts are still in the imma- 
ture plumage, which resembles that of the female. 
Steller’s Eider is said to have been obtained in 1855 between 
Calais and Boulogne ; four examples have been shot off Heligoland, 
and two in Denmark; while in the Baltic it is sometimes not 
uncommon. To the unfrozen waters on the coast of Norway it is an 
annual winter-visitant, and its most westerly breeding-place is said 
