4^ British Diving Ducks 
plumage is still unmoulted, and very finely edged with sandy-brown. By the following 
March, this female, if it had lived, would have resembled the adult female, but, as in the 
case of the second-year Eider female, would probably not have bred. 
Adult Female. — In winter plumage the head is olive-brown, mixed with rufous, and 
marked with black. There is often a slight purplish gloss on the crown. Cheeks, neck, 
fulvous and barred with black ; upper parts dark brown, mottled with rufous and edged 
with fulvous yellow ; back dark brown ; scapulars dark brown edged with rufous and 
sandy-yellow; wing-coverts dark brown tinged with olive-brown and tipped with white, 
forming a broad alar bar ; tail and primaries dark brown ; throat sandy-rufous and 
spotted finely with very dark brown ; upper breast chestnut mottled with black markings ; 
lower breast, abdomen, and vent black, sometimes slightly marked with chestnut ; flanks 
chestnut barred with black ; secondary wing-coverts white ; tail and primaries dark brown ; 
bill dusky-blue ; feet dusky-olive (Turner), but not so rich as the male ; irides dark brown ; 
measurements same as the male. 
An adult female killed from the nest, June 9, 1898, at Point Barrow, Alaska, has the 
under parts a rich dark brown ; chest reddish-brown, with black, pear-shaped markings ; 
the cheeks are reddish-brown with only a few blackish bars ; crown dark brown, and over 
and under the eyes sandy ; throat sandy-yellow ; the rest of the plumage as in winter, but 
with the tail and primaries considerably faded. 
General Distribution. — This beautiful duck inhabits the far north, extending from 
Northern Lapland to the coasts of Kamschatka and the northern coasts of N. America. 
Breeding Range. 
Europe. — Nordvi obtained many unidentified eggs from an island in the Heno group 
in Russian Lapland, which he believed to belong to this species, and sent over twenty eggs 
to the late Professor Newton, who doubted their authenticity (see Ootheca IVolleyana, ii. 
p. 570, note). A. G. Nordvi's original letter, in which he states that he obtained eggs from 
the Henoerne and from Petschinka appeared in the Jotirn. f. Orn., 1871, p. 208. 
W. Meves criticised this statement in the Journ. f. Orn., 1875, p. 433, and identified 
the eggs in question as those of Harelda glacialis I Eggs stated to belong to this species 
from the Varanger Fjord (Schancke) and from Tromso, Norway (Nehrkorn coll.), are in the 
British Museum, but can hardly be accepted without further evidence. In 1902 H. Goebel 
published an article in the Ornith. Jahrbuch (1902, p. 107), on Zip Nawolok (Ribatschi 
Peninsula, Murman coast), in which he states that though he obtained no eggs, he found 
two or three nests of Steller's Eiders, from one of which the eggs had been taken by gulls, 
and also met with pairs of breeding birds. This article has been brought to my notice 
by Mr. Jourdain, and has apparently been overlooked by all English writers on the subject. 
S. A. Buturlin informed Dresser that it bred on the Murman coast of Russian Lapland 
(Eggs of Birds of Europe, p. 580), and his statement is probably based on Goebel's 
researches and not on Nordvi's discredited records. There is also a probability that it 
breeds on Novaya Zemlya. See Ornith. Mortals berichte, 1906, p. 84. 
Asia. — First found nesting by Middendorff on the Taimyr Peninsula. See Midden- 
dorff, Sibir. Reise, ii. 2, p. 234, tab. xxiii. figs. 3-5 (eggs). Egg also figured by Newton, 
P. Z. S., 1 86 1, p. 400, pi. xxxix. fig. 4. From this point eastward it is found along the 
