WILD FOWL 
General distribution. — Steller’s eider inhabits the Arctic and sub-Arctic 
coasts of the Northern Hemisphere, and breeds in the Arctic portions 
of the coasts of Siberia from the Taimyr Peninsula eastwards to Alaska 
and the Aleutian Islands. It is also believed to breed at Varanger Fjord, 
though this has recently been denied. In winter it ranges to Northern 
Europe, regularly visiting the coast of Norway, and in the Baltic it is some- 
times not uncommon, while several have been obtained off Heligoland and 
Denmark. In the east it is rather numerous on the coasts of Kamchatka, 
and is met with in the Kurile Islands, Aleutian Islands, and sometimes in 
Greenland, and has once been obtained as far south as Quebec. 
Distribution in the British Isles. — ^It has been obtained twice only in the 
British Isles, on the Yorkshire and Norfolk coasts respectively. 
Nest and eggs. — ^The nesting-habits and food are like those of the com- 
mon eider. The eggs are said to be from seven to nine in number, and 
are of a pale greenish -grey colour, measuring 2*35 by 1*6 inches. 
This species is said to be found in winter in small flocks, and to frequent 
deep clear sea -water. It is not known to associate with other ducks, but oc- 
casionally a solitary king-eider may be seen keeping company with a flock. 
HARLEQUIN-DUCK 
HISTRIONICUS HISTRIONICUS 
(Plate XXIX, Fig. 10) 
Clangula histrionica, Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 381 (1837). 
Cosmonetta histrionica. Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, p. 609, pi. 442 (1877) ; Salvador!, Cat. 
Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 395 (1895) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, part xxx, pi. (1895) ; 
Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 457 (1899) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Bull. B.O.C., xxvii, p. 38 (1911). 
DULT male. — General colour above dark bluish-slate -colour, 
almost black on the neck, rump, upper and under tail- 
i coverts; a black band down the middle of the crown, 
extending from the base of the bill to the occiput, and 
g margined on either side anteriorly with white and 
posteriorly with chestnut; the fore -part of the face 
before the eye, ear -spot and a band on the side of the neck white; at the 
base of the neck a white collar margined with black and incomplete on 
the nape; on the sides of the breast a crescentic white band margined 
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