Eider-Duck 7 
about the plumages of the Eider, and what they do is strictly of a non-committal order. By 
far the best account of the sequence of plumages of S. mollissima and its allied races is to be 
found in Mr. E. Lehn Schioler's paper " on Somateria mollissima L., and some of its allied 
races," which was published in Dansk Ornithologisk Forenings Tidsskrift (vol. iii. June 
1908, pp. 109-49). This contains a very complete summary of Mr. Schioler's views on the 
plumage passage of the Eider, as well as notes on skeletons, breeding habits, and the dis- 
tribution of allied races. 
In the following descriptions of the plumages of the Common Eider, I have taken 
specimens whose plumage is normal at the days mentioned. Sometimes there is a delay 
or advance of several months, according to the condition or early hatching of the bird. All 
birds described are, for the sake of explanation, supposed to have been hatched on July i. 
Male: Down-plumage. — Crown, cheeks, wings, back, and rump brown, with long hair- 
like down of brownish-grey on shoulders and wings (over the whole of the back there is an 
olive-green tinge which soon vanishes), darker towards the rump and tail ; eye-stripe, chin, 
breast, and belly grey, grey-yellow, or very pale brown ; neck brownish-grey ; thighs brown. 
Bill blue-grey ; nail bone-yellow; feet blue-grey; irides brown. Length at four days, 9 inches. 
Juvenile-phtmage. — At four weeks feathers appear on the shoulders, and the legs and 
feet become lead-blue, and grow to a large size. The irides, too, become more red-brown. 
By August 12 the young are three-parts grown, and by September i they are clothed 
in their first plumage and are able to fly. It is generally stated that the young at first 
resemble the adult female, but this is hardly the case on close examination. 
Head and neck grey with dark-brown centres to the feathers ; eye-stripe light grey 
with dark-brown centres ; nape, shoulders, scapulars blackish-brown with narrow sandy 
edges ; rump brown-black ; upper tail-coverts black edged with reddish-brown ; centre of 
the wing blackish-brown edged with sandy-brown ; primaries brown ; secondaries grey- 
brown edged with pale sandy-brown ; throat grey ; chest and lower-parts blackish-brown 
with sandy edges to the feathers (in some examples the lower-belly and vent are a 
uniform grey-brown, whilst others are almost black with the feathers edged with sandy- 
brown) ; thighs reddish-brown and barred with black-brown. Feet and toes lead-grey ; bill 
green above, running into blue-grey below and in front of the nostrils. 
First IVinter-plumage. — There is little change until the middle of October,^ when 
a very general moult commences through the plumage except on the mantle, wings, lower- 
breast and belly, and rump — these portions of the plumage not being renewed, as a rule, 
until the chief moult in July. On examining a large series of young males between October 
and July of the first year, the most remarkable variation is noticeable in the time of 
shedding the tail-feathers. In some examples the worn juvenile-feathers are moulted in 
October, and a new black set is obtained by the 19th of that month, whilst in others they 
are being renewed in April, and yet in others in July after the birds have passed into their 
first eclipse-plumage. 
Between October and February the quantity of new plumage acquired by young males 
by fresh moult is extremely variable, some being as far advanced at the end of October as 
others by the end of February, 
First Stage. — The average young male in November has the crown and sides of the 
^ Sometimes a few white feathers come into the scapulars as early as September. 
t 
