710 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — LAMELLIBOSTBES — ANSEBES. 



Siberia; wintering mainly on the Aleutian Islands; usually found in company with Pacific, 

 spectacled, and king eiders. Being observed to breed in a plumage resembling that of the ? , 

 this eider probably requires at least two years to acquire the complete dress. The most beau- 

 tiful of many specimens I have handled have been winter birds. Eggs 7-9, 2.25 X 1.60, 

 exactly like those of the common eider in shape, color, and texture of shell. 



(Arotonetta.) 



732. S. (A.) fis'cheri. (To Gotth. Fischer, a Russian naturalist. Fig. 494.) Spectacled Eider. 

 Bin (in both sexes) peculiar in the extension upon it of dense velvety feathers which reach to a 

 point on the culmen beyond the nostrils, thence sweeping past the nostrils obliquely downward 

 and backward to the commissure, the nostrils opening just beneath the line of feathers. Feathers 

 of chin extending in a point nearly as far as those on culmen. A peculiarly dense and puffy 



patch of velvety feathers 



about the eye, suggesting 

 spectacles ; frontal feath- 

 ers erect, pilous, in the $ 

 somewhat stiffened; oc- 

 cipital feathers lengthened 

 into a crest ; these char- 

 acters of the head-feather- 

 ing best marked in the $ , 

 but indicated also in the 

 9 . Nan of bill distinct. 

 Adul^ (J ." General color 

 grayish-black, the neck 

 and most of the back 

 white; lesser and median 

 wing-coverts, the curved 

 tertials, the lining of wings 

 and axillars, white; flanks 

 white. On the head, the 

 - Spectacled Eider. (Prom Ball.) .^vl^ite of the neck gives 



way to rich sea-green, especially on the occipital crest; the frontal feathers are also tinged with 

 greenish; but the 'spectacles' are pure silvery white, framed in black. Bill, in the dried state, 

 dingy yellowish ; feet the same, with dusky webs. Smaller than the common eider ; wing 

 10.00; taU 4.00; tarsus 1.75; middle toe and claw 2.75; bill only about an inch long on 

 culmen, but about 2.25 along gape. 9 : Greatly different, as in all the eiders. BiU black, 

 with whitish nail of under mandible ; feet quite dark. General plumage like that of the com- 

 mon eider, barred almost throughout with black; chestnut-brown, and yellowish-brown, giving 

 way pn the belly to dull brownish nebulated with dusky ; on the head to pale brown streaked 

 or otherwise obscured with dusky. Axillars white. Though thus so similar to the common 

 eider in plumage, the peculiar feathering of the head and bill suiRoes to distinguish the bird at 

 a glance. Northwest coast, common in some localities, from Unalashka northward to Norton 

 and doubtless Kotzebue Sound ; but its ordinary range appears to be a restricted one, nearly 

 coincident with that of the emperor goose. 



(SOMATERIA.) 



733. S. molUs'sima. (Lat. molKssima, very soft ; referring to the down of the eider. Figs. 493, 495.) 

 European Eider Duck. Bill (in both sexes) with lateral frontal process extonding on each 

 side of the forehead, between the short pointed extension of the feathers on the cuhnen and the 





Fig. 494. - 



