288 



winter dress; butwith them, moulting commences as soon as the fe- 

 males have begun to sit, and then they don their sombrous summer 

 garb, so like that of the hen bird. The exact period of this 

 change, however, is not the same for all individuals ; they gradually 

 disappear, and a few males still in full winter-dress may not infre- 

 quently be observed as late as the end of July among the breeding 

 females. The summer dress of the male resembles so closely that 

 of the female and the young birds, that it is not easy to tell them apart 

 at a little distance; the former may however be distinguished, with 

 some practise, by the colour of the head, which is perceptibly 

 darker, and by the smaller number of spots on the body. The 

 Eider Duck being strictly preserved during the summer, — in some 

 districts, Finmark, for instance, the whole year through — it has very 

 rarely been shot at that season of the year. That many of the adult 

 males frequent the outermost holms and islands in summer time is 

 affirmed, but I certainly think that a great number remain where they 

 are and pass the season on the Fjords, eithersingly bythemselves 

 or in company with young immature individuals, which roam about 

 in flocks from shore to shore, till, as autumn advances, they are 

 joined by the females with their broods. Then it is the males 

 again put on their conspicuous winter dress, and h ene e- they are 

 supposed to have returned. 



These wandering flocks, mainly consisting of last years birds, 

 affect the neighbourhood of the fishing-grounds, where they feast 

 on the guts and other refuse of the fish. 



Somateria sp ectabilis, Lin. 



During the winter flocks of this species are met with along 

 the whole of the Finmark coast; but it has not yet been shown 

 to breed in Norway. Not so coinmon in the innermost creeks; 

 they occur, however, abundantly most winters in the neighbourhood 

 of Tromsø. From tliis place in Januarv and February 187] several 

 individuals, in lull pluniage, were transmitted to the I niversity 

 Museum. Shortly after deatli the naked protul)erance on the upper 

 mandible in the adult male is a bright orange, presenting an exact 

 resemblance to the rind of the fruit; the bill itself is light reddish; 



