THE BIRD BOOK 
Steller’s Duck 
Spectacled Eider 
157. Steller’s Duck. Polysticta stelleri. 
Range. — Arctic regions in America, chiefly on 
the Aleutian Islands and northwest coast of 
Alaska. 
A very beautiful species eighteen inches long; 
head white, washed with greenish on the fore- 
head and nape; chin, throat, hieck, back, tail and 
crissum, black; underparts chestnut; wing cov- 
erts white, the long scapulars black and white. 
It breeds on the rocky coasts and islands of 
Bering Sea. The six to nine eggs are pale olive 
green in color. Size 2.25 x 1.60. Data. — Admir- 
alty Bay, Alaska, June 22, 1898. Nest on a hum- 
mock of the tundra, near a small pool, lined with 
grass and down. Collector, E. A. Mcllhenny. 
158. Spectacled Eider. Arctonetta fischeri. 
Range. — Coast of Alaska from the Aleutians 
to Point Barrow. 
Pale olive green 
Like the rest of the true Eiders, this species is black beneath and mostly 
white above. The head is largely washed with sea green, leaving a large patch 
of white, narrowly bordered by black around each eye, thus resembling a pair 
of spectacles. The nests are made of grass and seaweed and lined with down; 
they are placed on the ground in clumps of grass or beneath overhanging 
stones. The live to nine eggs are an olive drab or greenish color. Size 2.70 
x 1.85. Data. — Point Barrow, Alaska, June 15, 1898. Six eggs. Nest of moss 
and down in a hollow in dry tundra. Collector, E. A. Mcllhenny. 
159- Northern Eider. Somateria mollissima borealis. 
Range. — North Atlantic coast, breeding from Labrador to Greenland and 
wintering south to New England. 
A large Duck similar to the next species, but with the base of the bill 
differing, as noted in the description of the following species, and with a more 
northerly distribution. The nesting habits are the same as those of the other 
Eiders. Six to ten eggs generally of a greenish drab color. Size 3. x 2, 
102 
