KING EIDEB 193 



in the interior rarely to the Great Lakes; and on Atlantic coast from southern 

 Greenland and Gulf of St. Lawrence south regularly to Long Island, rarely 

 to Georgia. Accidental in California and Iowa (modified from A. 0. U. Check- 

 list, 1910, p. 80). 



Distribution in CALiroKNiA — Very rare winter visitant coastwise. Two 

 definite records: One taken off Black Point, San Francisco, in winter of 1879-80 

 (Henshaw, 1880a, p. 189) ; and female taken on Suisun Marshes, Solano County, 

 between October 15, 1902, and February 1, 1903 (Loomis, MS) . 



The King Eider is of but extremely rare occurrence in California, 

 appearing here only as a straggler from the far north. Its breeding 

 grounds are in the Arctic regions and south into Bering Sea. It 

 winters abundantly among the Aleutian Islands south to the Shumagin 

 Islands and Kodiak Island, and in smaller numbers to southeastern 

 Alaska. 



There are but two definite records of the King Eider for Cali- 

 fornia, the first of a specimen taken by D. S. Bryant, off Black Point, 

 San Francisco, in the winter of 1879-80 (Henshaw, 1880a, p. 189). 

 The second and more recent instance, is of a female said to have been 

 brought in from the Suisun marshes, Solano County, in the winter of 

 1902-03. The bird was mounted and was on exhibition in Golcher 

 Brothers' store, San Francisco, until the fire of 1906 (Loomis, MS). 

 A further rumor is at hand of an Eider of some species having been 

 secured in January or February, 1910, off the heads west of Sausalito, 

 Marin County. This was a male, and was mounted and reported to 

 have been deposited in the Grolden Gate Park Museum. 



Eiders are large, heavily built ducks, recalling the Scoters. The 

 male King Eider has the fore part of the body (head, neck, upper back 

 and breast) wholly white appearing, and there is a large white area on 

 each wing and on each side of the rump. The rest of the plumage is 

 black. The female and young are without conspicuous markings, and 

 have a finely streaked pattern on the head and a barred pattern else- 

 where. In hand, the King Eider in any plumage may be distinguished 

 from other eiders by the extension of feathers on the eulmen as far 

 forward as the nostrils, while on the sides of the bill the feathering 

 goes only about half way to the nostrils. 



The following description of the peculiar head of the male is given 

 by Forbush (1912, p. 152): "The raised frontal processes at the 

 base of the bill, which adorn the head, develop immensely in the 

 breeding season, bulging high above the rest of the bill. These pro- 

 cesses are soft, and are supported upon a mass of fatty substance. 

 They shrink and become more depressed in winter, when the general 

 formation of the beak is not much different from that of other eiders." 



MacFarlane (Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, 1884, II, pp. 87-88) 

 found the King Eider nesting near the beach in the neighborhood of 



