LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS 
160. Eider. Somateria dresseri. 
Range. — Atlantic coast, breeding from Maine to 
Labrador and wintering south to Delaware. 
This species differs from the preceding only in 
the fleshy part of the base of the bill, which ex- 
tends back on each side of the forehead, it being 
broad and rounded in this species and narrow and 
pointed in the Northern or Greenland Eider. This 
species, but more especially the Northern Eider, 
are the ones chiefly used for the eider-down of 
commerce. The preceding species is often semi- 
domesticated in Greenland, the people protecting 
them and encouraging them to nest in the neigh- 
borhood. They make their nests of seaweed and 
grass and warmly line it with down from their 
breast; this down is continually added to the nest during incubation until 
there is a considerable amount in each nest, averaging about an ounce in 
weight. The birds are among the strongest of the sea ducks and get their food 
in very deep water. Their flesh is not good eating. Their eggs number from 
five to ten and are greenish drab. Size 3. x 2. 
Eider 
Pacific Eider 
161. Pacific Eider. Somateria v-nigra. 
Range. — North Pacific from the Aleutian Islands northward, and east to 
Great Slave Lake. 
This bird is, in plumage, like the Northern Eider, except that it has a black 
V-shaped mark on the throat. They nest sparingly on the Aleutian Islands, 
but in great numbers farther north on the coast about Point Barrow. Their 
habits, nests and eggs are precisely the same as those of the eastern forms. 
Their eggs number from five to ten and are of olive greenish color. Size 3. x 2. 
Data. — Cape Smythe, Alaska, June 8, 1900. Eight eggs. Nest a hollow in the 
moss, lined with grass and down. 
103 
