732. 
710 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —LAMELLIROSTRES — ANSERES. 
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 9, 
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. 
(ARCTONETTA.) 
S. (A.) fis/cheri. (To Gotth. Fischer, a Russian naturalist. Fig. 494.) Sprcractep Emer. 
Bill (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 g 
somewhat stiffened; oc- 
cipital feathers lengthened 
into a crest; these char- 
acters of the head-feather- 
ing best marked in the 3, 
but indicated also in the 
Q. Nail of bill distinct. 
Adult g: 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 
Fic. 494, — Spectacled Eider. (From Dall.) : white 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; tail 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. Bill 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 on 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 suffices 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 ove, nearly 
coincident with that of the emperor goose. 
(SOMATERIA.) 
S. mollis/sima. (Lat. mollissima, very soft; referring to the down of the eider. Figs. 493, 495.) 
EvRoreAN Erper Ducx. Bill (in both sexes) with lateral frontal process extending on each 
side of the forehead, between the short pointed extension of the feathers on the culmen and the 
