﻿136 ANAT1D/E. 



dulating grounds covered with long grasses, lichens and 

 stunted birch, and other vegetation. 



The difference to be observed in the appearance of the 

 two species of Eider Duck, consists greatly in the red colour 

 of the beak and legs of the one under consideration ; the 

 walk, flight, and capacities of swimming and diving, are 

 equally the same as those of the before-mentioned. The King 

 Eider is usually sociable and even neighbourly towards its con- 

 gener, except during the breeding-season when the male bird is 

 too irritable and quarrelsome to be endured in company with 

 the peaceable Eider Duck ; when one of this species mingles 

 among the encampment of the Eider Ducks, the persons 

 interested in their welfare are obliged to destroy it. 



In Greenland, Spitzbergen, and the coast of Norway, the 

 principal breeding-places of this bird are to be found ; but 

 some few instances are on record of its breeding more to the 

 south, and one has been mentioned as occurring in one of the 

 Orkney Islands. The nest is very similarly placed to that 

 of the Eider Duck, and the materials used for its construc- 

 tion are the same ; the eggs are generally four or five in 

 number, of size and colour as represented in our Plate. 

 The male bird leaves the care of the eggs and young brood 

 to his partner, while he departs to enjoy the company of his 

 friends on the open sea. 



The King Eider measures twenty-four inches and a half; 

 the beak, one inch two lines ; the tarsus, one inch two lines ; 

 the wing, eleven inches and a half. 



The male in adult plumage has the top part of the head 

 and nape ash-colour ; a space, forming a long triangle from the 

 beak below the eye, is green, the cheeks also green, but of a 

 lighter tint ; the nob on the red-coloured beak is encircled with 

 deep black, which band is continued through the eye, and sur- 

 rounds the triangular patch on the sides of the face ; the nail 



