SUPPLEMENT TO BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY 6l 



the following passages which were overlooked in the publication of the orig- 

 inal Memoir. Mackay^ says : " My friends Messrs. Nickerson and Phillips, with 

 only one barrel each, shot eighteen young drakes dead out of a flock of twenty- 

 three on the Salvages off Cape Ann, in the winter of i860. These same gentlemen 

 also shot eighty-seven one day in December, 1859, on the same rock." 



Charles Hallock^ says: "Towards the last of October, the Eiders begin to 

 appear along the Massachusetts coast, forming in large bodies off the rocky capes. 

 Good sport is had by gunners from Cape Ann in the winter months. A good boat, 

 with a man to sail it, can be hired at Rockport or Gloucester, and if the day is 

 pleasant, with wind to westward, and a trifle rough, the sportsman may expect 

 shooting." 



On March 14, 1909, when in company with Ralph Hoffmann and Glover M. 

 Allen, I saw a flock of seventeen Eiders outside the Salvages at Rockport. All 

 but two were in the plumage of the female. These two had partially molted into 

 the adult male plumage. One had a black belly and white breast and the neck 

 was brown behind and white in front. 



I have had excellent opportunities to study the courtship of this duck in 

 Labrador and I have described it in the Auk.^ 



In diving the Eider spreads out its wings for use under water. 



The male Eider is a striking bird and easily seen and recognized when in the 

 full nuptial plumage. Seen from the side when he swims on the water the black 

 crown, wings, and tail contrast strongly with the general whiteness of the rest of 

 the plumage. Viewed from behind, the black crown is seen to be parted by a 

 white line, while the black wings and tail, separated by a white division, make a 

 striking pattern. In flight the black belly and creamy-white breast are very 

 conspicuous. 



The female and young and the male in eclipse plumage, which he hastens to 

 don after the nuptial season, are singularly inconspicuous either on water or 

 on land. 



As there are all degrees between the narrow homy processes that extend 

 backward from the bill in 6". mollissima borealis and the long broad ones of 

 dresseri, as shown by M. Joliann Beetz,* I have in this case departed from the 

 Check-list of 1910 and entered this bird as a subspecies of mollissima as explained 

 in my notes in M. Beetz's article. 



1 Mackay, G. H. Auk, vol. 7, p. 317, 1890. 



2 Hallock, C. The Sportsman's Gazetteer, p. 228, 1877. 



3 Townsend, C. W. Auk, vol. 27, pp. 180, 181, 1910. 

 * Beetz, J. Auk, vol. 33, p. 286-292, 1916. 



