1 68 The Water-fowl Family 



breed in protected colonies and become exceed- 

 ingly tame, the duck allowing herself to be raised 

 from the nest while the down is removed. Incu- 

 bation begins in June, and lasts about a month. 

 In the late summer and early fall they congregate 

 in large flocks offshore, frequenting the rocky 

 islands. Winter drives them only to open water. 

 I was told by natives that in the winter of 1900 

 the outer water about the Magdalen Islands was 

 frozen for a long distance from shore. Large 

 flocks of these ducks congregated on the ice, 

 where they were surrounded and killed with 

 sticks. 



AMERICAN EIDER 

 (Somateria dresseri) 



Similar in plumage to the Greenland eider but differs in the bill. 

 The frontal angles or naked portion running from the base of 

 the bill on to each side of forehead in the American eider are 

 broad, rounded, and much corrugated, while in S. borealis 

 molissima they are narrow and smooth. The female possesses 

 the same characteristics. Sometimes a black V similar to that 

 on the Pacific eider occurs on the throat of the males. 



Measurements are similar in the two species except the angle 

 of bill, which in the present species is .45 of an inch in its 

 greatest width. 



Eggs — Four to eight in number, olive-green in color, and measure 

 3 by 1.80 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds in Newfoundland, and from Maine north on the 

 coast to Hudson Strait, and south in Hudson Bay to James 

 Bay, also on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 Winters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the St. Lawrence River, 

 and south on the Atlantic Coast, regularly to Massachusetts, 

 rarely to Virginia ; and in the interior rarely to western New 

 York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Colorado. 



