Todd : Birds of Erie and Presque Isle. 525 



are specimens in the Carnegie Museum shot by gunners on Erie Bay 

 on January 20 and 29, 1901, and February 16, 1904, respectively. 

 Mr. Bacon writes, that, while shooting snipe in the fields April 31, 

 1 90 1, he killed one of these ducks, that came flying overhead; with 

 this exception, he has never seen one away from the lake or bay. 



[Histrionicus histrionicus. Harlequin Duck. 



There appears to be no valid Ohio record for this northern species, but it may 

 occur along Lake Erie as a casual or accidental winter visitant. 



Somateria dresseri. American Eider. 



This is an essentially marine species, which occurs " south in winter ... to the 

 Great Lakes" (A. O. U. Check- List of North American Birds, 1895, S7)> and may 

 be expected as a straggler at Erie at that season.] 



37. Somateria spectabilis. King Eider. 



The King Eider is a casual winter visitant on Lake Erie, there be- 

 ing records from Sandusky, Cleveland, and Buffalo. (See Wheaton, 

 Birds of Ohio, 1882, 536, and Allen, Bulletin Nuttall Ornitho- 

 logical Club, V., 1880, 62). The first record of its occurrence in the 

 region of which this paper treats was published by Mr. George B. 

 Sennett, whose notes {Auk, VII., 1890, 88) are herewith quoted en- 

 tire : "The great storm of Nov. 28 and 29, 1889, on the Great 

 Lakes, brought into the Bay of Erie a flock of fifteen to twenty King 

 Eider Ducks. They were seen about noon of Nov. 30 swimming 

 in close to the Iron Ore Dock where numbers of men were at work 

 unloading vessels. The hunters were soon down on the dock with 

 guns and others put out in boats. So fearless or stupid were the Ducks 

 that it was no trouble to shoot them, and at one discharge three were 

 killed. Mr. James Thompson very kindly took two of the birds home 

 with him and telephoned me that some very queer-looking Ducks had 

 been shot that day, placing at my disposal the pair he had secured. 

 The next day, December 1st, we went to the dock and to all the 

 hunters we could get track of and captured all the specimens that had 

 not already gotten into the pot. Out of fourteen that we could trace 

 as having been killed, we were fortunate enough to obtain seven in 

 good condition. The oldest hunters here do not remember to have 

 seen any of the kind before. They call them Boobies, the same name 

 they give to the Surf Ducks that are frequently taken here. No other 

 Ducks were seen in the bay when the Eiders appeared. They are in 

 all varieties of immature plumage, none appearing in anything like the 

 breeding condition. The nearest approach to it was one male that 



