THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
Male examples of the common eider sometimes show an indistinct 
V-shaped black mark on the throat, and these have been mistaken for 
examples of S. v -nigrum. 
S. dresseri has been obtained once off the coast of Holland by the late 
Mr T. M. Pike. 
KING-EIDER 
SOMATERIA SPECTABILIS 
(Plate XXIX, Fig. 5) 
Somateria sitectabilis, Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 375 (1837) ; Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, 
p. 643, pi. 446 (1877) ; Salvador!, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 432 (1895) ; Lilford, Col. 
Fig. Brit. Birds, part xxx, pi. (1895) ; Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 461 (1899). 
DULT male. — Top of the head and nape French grey; 
forehead and feathers surrounding the base of the bill 
M and eye-spot black; cheeks pale sea-green, darkest 
f' above; throat, neck, upper back and a large patch on 
i each side of the rump white; on the throat a v -shaped 
IK. black mark pointing towards the chin; chest isabelline- 
buff; rest of the plumage of the body, including the scapulars, black; 
most of the lesser and median wing -coverts white; quills, including the 
long sickle -shaped inner secondaries, black; under wing -coverts brown; 
axillaries white. Iris yellow; bill reddish -orange, with the base of the 
upper mandible much elevated and compressed and forming a sort of 
shield on either side; legs and feet orange -red, with the membranes 
somewhat darker. Total length about 24 inches; bill 1 3 inch; wing 11*0 
inches; tail 3 5 inches; tarsus 2‘0 inches. 
Adult male in eclipse-plumage. — Head and neck brown spotted with 
black, paler on the chin and throat; chest brown, barred with black, and 
with whitish middles to the feathers, giving a mottled appearance; a 
line of feathers down each side of the mantle and most of the lesser and 
median wing-coverts white, remainder of the plumage brownish -black. 
Adult female. — Resembles the adult female of S. mollissimay but is 
smaller and more ruddy. It may be easily distinguished by having the 
feathering on the forehead extending forward to the nostrils, whereas 
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