THE COMMON EIDER. 357 



Adult male. Eclipse. — The body-feathers, but not lower- 

 breast, belly, vent nor back (usually sides of rump) are first moulted 

 June to Aug. While in eclipse back, lower-breast, belly, vent, tail 

 and wings are renewed, moult of these areas in their later stages 

 synchronising with assumption of winter plumage but sometimes 

 moult of lower -breast, belly and vent does not appear to start before 

 commencement of post-eclipse moult. Fore-head, crown, lores, 

 cheeks and sides of upper-neck brown-black or dark sepia (feathers 

 of fore -head sometimes more or less barred or tipped buff, those of 

 rest of head more or less narrowly tipped white) ; irregular buff or 

 white streak through eye, feathers narrowly streaked or barred and 

 tipped brown-black ; black streak from upper-side of lores to eye ; 

 chin, throat and rest of neck sooty-brown or light sepia, feathers 

 with imperfectly concealed brownish -white bases ; mantle and 

 scapulars sooty-brown or light sepia, some feathers of centre of 

 mantle sometimes with distal halves more or less white and broadly 

 tipped b]ack, scapulars sometimes with outer webs or centres of 

 feathers towards tip more or less white ; back as adult winter- 

 summer ; rump brown-black ; sides of rump and upper tail-coverts 

 sooty-brown ; feathers of upper-breast bordering lower-neck sooty- 

 brown, sometimes tipped buff and often with irregular white 

 central marking, rest of feathers with distal halves white, broadly 

 tipped black, some with terminal buff markings and barred blackish ; 

 sides of body, flanks and under tail-coverts sooty-brown ; rest of 

 under-parts as adult winter -summer. N.B. — Sometimes some 

 worn white feathers are retained on head, neck, mantle and sca- 

 pulars. 



Adult female. Winter and summer. — Fore-head and crown 

 streaked black-brown, feathers edged pink- cinnamon or cinnamon- 

 buff ; nape, cheeks, side of neck, chin, throat and fore-neck warm 

 buff or pink-cinnamon, more or less narrowly streaked black-brown, 

 in some a light buff streak, feathers narrowly streaked black-brown, 

 through eye ; rest of upper-parts brown-black, feathers edged 

 cinnamon-buff or tawny, scapulars notched and with broad edges 

 of same ; upper-breast, sides of body, flanks and under tail-coverts 

 cinnamon-buff or pink-buff with black-brown bars more or less 

 concealed on upper-breast, broader and more numerous on sides of 

 body and flanks ; rest of under-parts sooty-brown or drab-brown, 

 feathers with imperfectly concealed pale drab bases (sometimes with 

 darker bars and irregularly barred and tipped buff) ; axillaries 

 white, sometimes mottled dusky-brown ; under wing-coverts pale 

 sepia more or less tipped white, some ashy-white ; tail, primaries 

 and their coverts as male ; secondaries warm sepia, paler on inner 

 webs, outer webs narrowly tipped white, innermost secondaries 

 edged tawny (sometimes notched brown-black on outer webs) ; 

 greater coverts as secondaries but white tips more extensive ; 

 primary -coverts pale sepia narrowly tipped buff ; innermost 

 greater, median and lesser coverts as mantle but lesser and inner- 

 most median with narrower buff edges. This plumage is acquired 



