WILD FOWL 
in the common eider it only reaches half way. Breast and abdomen 
more uniform smoky -brown than in the common eider, and with scarcely 
a trace of black cross-bars. Under wing -coverts brown and white; 
axillaries pure white. Iris dull yellow; bill greenish-brown; feet dull 
ochre. Total length about 21 inches; bill 1 ’2 inch; wing 10*0 inches; 
tail 3*0 inches; tarsus 1*7 inch. 
General distribution . — The king-eider is an Arctic species nearly circum- 
polar in its distribution. It breeds in Kolguev, Spitzbergen and Novaya 
Zemlia, and along the Arctic shores of Asia to Bering Sea; thence east- 
wards across Arctic North America to Greenland, where it has been found 
up to 81° north latitude. In winter it visits Iceland, the Faeroes and the 
coast of Norway, and occurs, but rarely, on the shores of Denmark, 
Holland and the Baltic, while individual stragglers have been met with 
much further south, even near Venice. In America it has occurred as 
far south as California on the west and Georgia on the east coast; also 
in Iowa. 
Distribution in the British Isles . — To the British Isles it must be re- 
garded as a very rare straggler, though a considerable number have 
been obtained from time to time in the Shetland and Orkney Islands 
and on the more northern parts of the coast of Great Britain, especially 
at the Fame Islands; also a few on the north-east coast of Ireland. 
Nest and eggs . — The nesting-habits resemble those of the common 
eider, and the eggs are very similar but somewhat smaller, measuring 
about 2 *7 by 1*75 inches. 
The food is much the same as that of the common eider. 
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