MOLLISSIM^. 
EIDER DUCK. 
[Plate LXXL — Fig. 3, Female.'\ 
Peale’s Museum, J\’o. 2707. 
The difference of colour in these two birds is singularly great. 
The female is considerably less than the male, and the bill does 
not rise so high in the forehead; the general colour is a dark 
reddish drab, mingled with lighter touches, and every where 
spotted with black; wings dusky, edged with reddish; the greater 
coverts and some of the secondaries are tipt with white; tail 
brownish black, lighter than in the male; the plumage in general 
is centred with bars of black, and broadly bordered with rufous 
drab; cheeks and space over the eye light drab; belly dusky, 
obscurely mottled with black; legs and feet as in the male. 
Van Troil, in ^is Letters on Iceland, observes respecting this 
Duck, that “the young ones quit the nest soon after they are 
hatched, and follow the female, who leads them to the water, 
where having taken them on her back, she swims with them a 
few yards, and then dives, and leaves them floating on the 
water ! In this situation they soon learn to take care of them- 
selves, and are seldom afterwards seen on the land; but live 
among the rocks, and feed on insects and sea weed.” 
Some attempts have been made to domesticate these birds, 
but hitherto without success. 
