370 FEATHERED GAME 
of its life and habits, and our chance of learn- 
ing more about them is very slight. It was 
fully fifty years ago that they were found on 
our coasts, never in any abundance, for few 
have been taken at all. 
Audubon’s drawings were made from a pair 
shot by Daniel Webster and by him presented 
to the naturalist. 
The male bird’s head and neck are white, with 
a broad black line running down over the crown 
and nape. The lower neck with a black ring 
encircling it and that connected with the black 
of the back and upper parts. Below this black 
collar a broader band of white which nearly 
meets at the back. Above, entirely black ex- 
cept the wing coverts, secondaries and scapu- 
lars, these last pearl gray; below, wholly black, 
save the linings of the wings and the axillars, 
which are white. Primaries and their coverts 
and the tail feathers brownish black. Bill black, 
base and edges orange, the ridge blue-gray. 
Eyes reddish brown; feet gray with dusky webs 
and nails. 
The female is a mottled gray and brown duck 
not much unlike the females of the king eiders, 
but may be distinguished by her white speculum. 
