364 



A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



buff broadly tipped black-brown ; chin and throat dusky -white, 

 feathers mostly tipped ash-brown ; rest of neck as in 8. m. mollis- 

 sima ; feathers of upper-breast mostly sooty-brown with an oval 

 white marking or pear-shaped drop towards tip, more or less barred 

 black-brown (in some these feathers more or less ashy-white barred 

 black-brown) with buff tips, sparsely intermixed with feathers with 

 distal halves white (in 8. m. mollissima these latter feathers are 

 abundant). N.B. — Sometimes worn winter feathers are retained 

 on mantle and upper -breast. 



Adult female. Winter and summer. — Somewhat like adult 

 8. m. mollissima but crown and nape more narrowly streaked black, 

 feathers edged redder tawny ; sides of face, sides of neck and lower- 

 nape tawny or cinnamon-buff more or less narrowly streaked black- 

 brown ; chin and throat paler, 

 faintly streaked dusky-brown ; rest 

 of upper-parts as in 8. m. mollis- 

 sima but feathers edged redder 

 tawny or chestnut (in some paler), 

 scapulars with irregular tawny 

 markings ; upper - breast, flanks, 

 sides of body, sides of vent and 

 under tail-coverts reddish-tawny, 

 feathers with dusky bases and 

 irregular U- or V-shaped brown- 

 black markings ; rest of breast, 

 belly and vent uniform sooty- 

 brown, feathers with imperfectly 

 concealed pale drab bases, some- 

 times tipped buff-brown and some- 

 times barred black-brown especially 

 on vent ; axillaries, under wing- 

 coverts and tail as in 8. m. mollissima ; wing as in 8. m. mol- 

 lissima but innermost secondaries and coverts in some bordered 

 on outer webs chestnut -brown instead of tawny, median and lesser 

 coverts as mantle. This plumage is acquired by complete body- 

 moult Nov. to March. By late summer plumage becomes consider- 

 ably paler by fading and wear. 



Adult female. Eclipse. — Most feathers of head, neck, mantle 

 and scapulars (some of back, rump and upper tail -coverts), upper- 

 breast, sides of body and flanks, apparently not rest of under-parts 

 are moulted first followed by wings and tail in Aug. and Sept. 

 Feathers of upper-parts with paler edges than in winter and summer. 

 Crown and upper-part of nape heavily streaked brown-black, rest 

 of nape ash-brown, feathers more or less edged buff ; feathers of 

 mantle and scapulars edged cinnamon-buff, new feathers of back 

 and upper tail -coverts as mantle but tips narrower, tail -coverts with 

 irregular blackish subterminal bars ; new feathers of upper -breast 

 paler ; sides of body and flanks as scapulars. 



Nestling. — Upper-parts and sides of body as in 8. m. mollissima 



The King-Eider (Somateria svectabilis). Bill 

 of adult female to show frontal and loral 

 feathering. 



