Family ANATID^. Genus Somateria, 



Subfamily Fuligulinm. 



COMMON EIDER. 



SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA— (Z/««««^). 

 Geographical Distribution.— ^nVw/% .• Rare straggler in 



winter to the southern portions of the British Islands, including 

 the west, east, and south coasts of England, and all the coasts of 

 Ireland. Breeds from the Fame Islands locally northwards to 

 the Orkneys and Shetlands, and along the west coast of Scotland, 

 including the Outer Hebrides and St. Kilda, as far south on the 

 mainland as Inverness-shire. Foreign : Northern and western 

 confines of Palsearctic region, and northern and eastern confines 

 of Nearctic region ; more southerly in winter. Breeds on the 

 shores of the Kara Sea, Franz Josef Land, Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, 

 the coasts of Norway and Denmark, the Faroes, Iceland, and 

 Greenland up to lat 8i J^°, thence across Baffin Bay and Davis 

 Strait, along the coast of the mainland and on the islands in the 

 Arctic Ocean as far east as Banks Land and the Coppermine 

 River. Wherever the winters are sufficiently severe to seal the 

 water it draws southwards, and is then found in the Baltic, the 

 basin of the North Sea, and the English Channel, and in the New 

 World as far south as the coast of Maine. It is said very ex- 

 ceptionally to wander as far south as the Mediterranean, and has 

 been recorded on doubtful authority from the Swiss lakes. 



Allied Forms. — Somateria mollissima dresseri, an inhabitant 

 in summer of Labrador and Newfoundland, drawing south in 

 winter as far as the coast of Maine. Only subspecifically distinct, 

 and of doubtful distinctness. A mere local race said to differ from 

 the Common Eider by having the feathers on the forehead pro- 

 longed in a narrow line only half as far as those on the side of the 



