75 



Field Marks. Male is unmistakable. Female may be recognized by size and general 

 darkness of coloration, scarcely lighter below; absence of a wing-patch; and two light 

 suffused face patches. 



Nesting. On ground, under rocks or driftwood or in hollow stumps. 



Distribution. Only a migrant in the east, very rare in the interior though common 

 in the mountains of the west where it breeds. 



This is one of the prettiest of our Ducks, coming next to the Wood 

 Duck in point of beauty. Its proper home is in the brawling streams of 

 the west and northwest where it is well known to the prospector and miner. 

 In eastern Canada it haunts rocky bays and shores where it feeds largely 

 on the sea fleas and small shrimps that throng the inshore salt waters. 



Genus — Somateria. Eiders. 



Though not forming a recognized systematic division of Ducks this 

 and the next genus are peculiar and show enough common characters to 

 receive special mention here. 



General Description. Large, sturdily built birds, the largest of our Ducks. Male 

 Eiders have broad masses of sharply contrasting colours and delicate tints; Scoters nearly 

 all black, some with small accents of pure white. Both genera have swollen bills with 

 strange excrescences and brilliant colorations (Figure 9, p. 19). 



Distinctions. General dark colorations, unrelieved by much pattern of the Scoters; 

 bright coloration in broad masses of male Eiders; and finely and evenly barred tones of 

 browns of females; size, build, swellings and protuberances of bills of both sexes of most 

 species are the most obvious characteristics. 



Field Marks. General coloration and bills. 



Nesting. On the ground near water, sometimes under shelter of overhanging rocks or 

 bushes; nest lined with down from the parent's body. The eider-down of commerce is 

 obtained from the nests of the Eiders. 



Distribution. Distributed over the whole of Canada, nesting in the north; most 

 common on the coasts and the large bodies of water during migration. 



These are "Sea Ducks" in the strict sense of the term, built for buffet- 

 ing heavy weather and rarely coming in to the shallow pools or marshes. 

 They feed on shell-fish and marine life obtained by diving. 



Economic Status. Their food habits have little economic interest 

 to man, but in certain localities, as in Labrador, they furnish in themselves 

 and their eggs, the bulk of the fresh animal food available. As the down is 

 a valuable object of commerce the Eiders are of distinct and recognized 

 value. They are being rapidly reduced in numbers (See discussion of 

 American Eider) and drastic steps should be taken for their conservation. 



160. Eider Duck. ph. — l'eideb dtj nohd. Somateria mollissima. L, 23. Male: 

 black below, cutting sharply against the white breast which is delicately suffused with 

 vinaceous pink; white above; head white with nile-green suffusion from cheeks to nape; 

 broad black bar through eye to hindhead. Female: evenly coloured in fine pattern of 

 various browns, blacks, and light ochres arranged in broken bars around the body. Bill 

 processes extending up either side of the forehead in long fleshy tongues. 



Distinctions. Male unmistakable; female may be separated from that of King Eider 

 by feathering of crown not extending as far forward as rear end of the nostril. This species 

 is much like the American Eider from which it can be separated only by size and shape of 

 the bill processes on the forehead — in the Eider Duck they terminate acutely and are not 

 rounded at the tips — and distance from point of feathering on side of bill to tip of process 

 is less than in the American Eider. 



Field Marks. Size and general coloration. 



Nesting. On the ground, nest built entirely of down. 

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