42 
Allen’s naturalist’s LiBRARy. 
rufous, like the sides of the face ; fore-neck, chest, and sides of 
concentric black bars; centre of 
breast and abdomen sooty-blackish, the under tail-coverts 
^ "fwP'' """g-coverts dusky, with a patch of white 
vel ow Tof i feet dull ochre; iris dull 
yellow. Total length, 21 inches; wing, io'5. 
Characters,-The King Eider can always be distinguished by 
Srehl'lV" ' P?“’t of the feathering on the 
forehead reaches as far as the hinder end of the nostrils • thp 
-"yk- I« the mak, 
upper mandible IS enlarged on each side so as to form a broad 
female is much more rufous than that of 
nf iiF f Elder, and can be distmguislied by the characters 
of the feathering on the bill. ^liaiaccers 
Kange in Great Britaiu—The King Eider can only be con- 
sidered a rare visitor to our coasts, and has principally been 
thp nrP Islands, doubtless lured to stay there by 
the presence of the Common Eider Ducks, which are resident 
on the group. Several have been observed off the coast of 
Scotland, particularly in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles, and 
in England a few individuals have been procured, chiefly on 
the east coast. I have seen one specimen from Ireland, an 
immature bird having been submitted to me by Mr Sheridan 
Kange outside the British Islauds.-The King Eider is a strictlv 
arctic bird, breeding in Kolguev, Novaya Zemlya, and S the 
northern lands of Siberia to Bering Sea. It is ml yet known to 
breed m Iceland or the Fieroes.or in Spitsbergen or Scandinavia, 
though It occasionally occurs m winter in these localities, and 
has also been found at intervals on the coasts of the North Sea 
and the Baltic. In North America it is known as a breeding 
bird, not only in Greenland, but nearly as far north as man has 
yet penetrated, and as far south as the Province of Quebec in 
Canada, coming further in winter to the Great Lakes and New 
Jersey, and being found occasionally as far south as Cali- 
fornin.< 
Feilden, in his notes on the birds of the 
North I olar basin, says that King Eiders were first noticed on 
