125 



FEMALE EIDER DUCK. 

 [Plate LXXL— Fig. 3.] 



Peace's Museum, JS^o. 2707. 



THE difference of color in these two birds is singularly great. 

 The female is considerably less than the male, and the bill does 

 not rise so high in the forehead ; the general color is a dark red- 

 dish drab, mingled with lighter touches, and every where spotted 

 with black; wings dusky, edged with reddish; the greater coverts 

 and some of the secondaries are tipt with white ; tail brownish 

 black, lighter than in the male ; the plumage in general is cen- 

 tered with bars of black, and broadly bordered with rufous drab ; 

 cheeks and space over the eye light drab ; belly dusky, obscurely 

 mottled with black ; legs and feet as in the male. 



Van Troil, in his Letters on Iceland, observes respecting this 

 Duck, that "the young ones quit the nest soon after they are 

 hatched, and follow the female, who leads them to the water, 

 where having taken them on her back, she swims with them a 

 few yards, and then dives, and leaves them floating on the water ! 

 In this situation they soon learn to take care of themselves, and 

 are seldom afterwards seen on the land; but live among the rocks, 

 and feed on insects and sea weed.^' 



Some attempts have been made to domesticate these birds, 

 but hitherto without success. 



VOL. VIII. 



