THE EIDER DUCK. 357 



tremely large and muscular. The trachea of the young male, so long as it 

 remains in its imperfect plumage, or for the first twelve months, does not 

 resemble that of the old male. The males do not obtain their full plumage 

 until the fourth winter. They at first resemble the mother, then gradually 

 become pie-bald, but not in less time than between two and three years. 



The Eider Duck takes a heavy shot, and is more easily killed on wing 

 than while swimming. When on shore they mark your approach while you 

 are yet at a good distance, and fly off before you come within shot. Some- 

 times you may surprise them while swimming below high rocks, and, if you 

 are expert, then shoot them; but when they have first seen you, it is seldom 

 that you can procure them, as they dive with extreme agility. While at 

 Great Macatina Harbour, we discovered a large basin of water, communi- 

 cating with the sea by a very narrow passage about thirty yards across, and 

 observed that at particular stages of the tides the Eider Ducks entered and 

 returned by it. By hiding ourselves on both sides of this channel, we suc- 

 ceeded in killing a good number, but rarely more than one at a shot, 

 although sometimes we obtained from a single file as many as we had of gun- 

 barrels. 



Excepting in a single nest, I found no down clean, it having been in every 

 other instance more or less mixed with small dry fir twigs and bits of grass. 

 When cleaned, the down of a nest rarely exceeds an ounce in weight, 

 although, from its great elasticity, it is so bulky as to fill a hat, or if properly 

 prepared even a larger space. The eggers of Labrador usually collect it in 

 considerable quantity, but at the same time make such havoc among the 

 birds, that at no very distant period the traffic must cease. 



Eider Dcck, Anas mollissima, Wils. Araer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 122. 



Fcligula mollissima, Bonap. Syn., p. 389. 



Somateria mollissima, Eider, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 448. 



Eider Duck, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 406. 



Eider Dl t ck, Fuligula mollissima. Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 344; vol. v. p. 611. 



Male, 25, 42. Female, 24, 39. 



Breeds in Maine, on the Bay of Fundy, in Labrador, Newfoundland, as 

 far northward as travellers have proceeded. Common in winter from Nova 

 Scotia to Massachusetts; rarely seen in New York. 



Adult Male. 



Bill about the length of the head, deeper than broad at the base, some- 

 what depressed towards the end, which is broad and rounded. Upper man- 

 dible with a soft tumid substance at the base, extending upon the forehead, 

 and deeply divided into two narrow rounded lobes, its whole surface marked 

 with divergent oblique lines, the dorsal outline nearly straight and sloping 



