FEMALE EIDER DUCK. 617 
plumage of this part of the head, to the throat, is tumid, and looks as 
if cut off at the end, for immediately below the neck it suddenly nar- 
rows, somewhat in the manner of the Buffel-Head, enlarging again 
greatly as it descends, and has a singular hollow between the shoulders 
behind ; the upper part of the neck, the back, scapulars, lesser wing- 
coverts, and sides of the rump, are pure white; lower part of the 
breast, belly, and vent, black; tail, primaries, and secondaries, brown- 
ish black; the tertials curiously curved, falling over the wing; legs, 
short, yellow ; webs of the feet, dusky. 
Latham has given us the following sketch of the gradual progress 
of the young males to their perfect colors: —“JIn the first year the 
back is white, and the usual parts, except the crown, black; but the 
rest of the body is variegated with black and white. In the second 
year, the neck and breast are spotted black and white, and the crown 
black. In the third, the colors are nearly as when in full plumage, 
but less vivid, and a few spots of black still remaining on the neck; 
the crown, black, and bifid at the back part. 
«The young of both sexes are the same, being covered with a kind 
of hairy down; throat, and breast, whitish; and a cinereous line from 
the bill through the eyes fo the hind head.”* 
FEMALE EIDER DUCK. — Fie. 29¢ 
Peale’s Museum, No. 2707. 
SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA.—Leacn. 
Tue difference of color in these two birds is singularly great. The 
female is considerably less than the male, and the bill does not rise so 
high in the forehead ; the general color is a dark reddish drab, mingled 
with lighter touches, and every where spotted with black; wings, 
dusky, edged with reddish ; the greater coverts, and some of the sec- 
ondaries, are tipped with white; tail, brownish black, lighter than in 
the male ; the plumage in general is centred with bars of black, and 
broadly bordered with rufous drab ; cheeks, and space over the eye, 
light drab ; belly, dusky, obscurely mottled with black; legs, and feet, 
as in the male. 
Van Troil, in his Letters on Iceland, observes, respecting this Duck, 
that “the young ones quit the nest soon after they are hatched, and 
follow the female, who leads them to the water, where, having taken 
them on her back, she swims with them a few yards, and then dives, 
and leaves them floating on the water! In this situation they soon 
learn to take care of themselves, and are seldom afterwards seen on the 
land, but live among the rocks, and feed on insects and sea-weed.” 
Some attempts have been made to domesticate these birds, but 
hitherto without success. 
* Synopsis, iti, 471. 
ao" 
