Auk, XIY, July, 1897, p p-3°3-P. 
A NOTEWORTHY PLUMAGE OBSERVED IN THE 
AMERICAN EIDER DRAKE ( SOMATERIA 
DRESSERI). 
BY ARTHUR H. NORTON. 
In the ornithological literature there has appeared from time 
to time, notes reporting the occurrence of the Pacific Eider drake 
in Atlantic districts of North America. These reports have been 
based on Eiders having a black V-shaped figure on the throat, a 
character commonly used, in connection with a white mantle, as 
diagnostic of Somateria v-nigra. 
Such records have been questioned, but apparently a final 
decision has been deferred. Therefore the belief is entertained 
that a description of certain specimens of Somateria dresseri, taken 
an the east coast of the United States, is of sufficient interest to 
warrant its appearance here. 
The present data clearly show that the black lancet is a character 
of frequent occurrence in the young drakes of S. dresseri j and 
there are strong reasons for the belief that it occurs in S. mollissima 
borealis. (See Hagerup, Bds. of Greenland, p. 42.) 
During the winter of 1891, I received in the flesh, from 
Penobscot Bay, Me., a specimen of S. dresseri , showing marks of 
immaturity and having a distinct dusky or black lancet on the 
throat. It being unique in my experience, I wrote to the collector 
to send any other specimens having black on the throat, with the 
result of receiving another very similar to it, and two adult drakes 
with black spots on the throat, located at the position of the 
junction of the two lines which form the lancet or V when present. 
On questioning several collectors who live on the Maine coast, 
I was assured that they had quite often seen such marks in young 
drakes. Upon the investigation of a large series of these drakes 
in all stages of plumage, it was found that this feature is of irregu- 
lar appearance, or, what is perhaps best understood, as an 
occasional reversion to the characters of a progenitor from which 
it sprung, in common with v-nigra. 
It may be stated of the birds having the black figure, that, aside 
from the presence of that mark, their only departures from the 
typical adult male of their species, are fully shown to be coincident 
with stages of immaturity, and that they show nothing that can be 
considered as of a hybridic nature. 
Description of Specimens having Black Marks on Throat. 
No. 342, Coll. A. IT. N. ; Penobscot Bay, Me., winter, 1891. Somateria 
dresseri, male, nearly mature. Differing from adult male in having a 
few dusky tipped lesser wing-coverts; dusky tips to falcate tertials; 
frontal processes but .9 mm. wide near apex. Differing from the normal 
drake in having a dusky V or lancet on the throat, 46 mm. long. This 
specimen is matched in a normal young drake preserved in the same 
collection. 
No. 439, Coll. A. H. N. ; Penobscot Bay, Me., Dec., 1893. S', dresseri, 
male, nearly mature. Similar to the last, except in having more dusky 
tipped lesser coverts, falcate tertials tipped with a deeper shade of dusky ; 
and frontal process 12 mm. wide. It differs from the normal drake in 
having a dusky lancet .38 mm. long, on the throat. 
No. 340, Coll. A. H. N. ; Penobscot Bay, Me., Mar. 20, 1891. 5 . dresseri , 
male, perfectly mature. No dusky in white of the wing ; frontal process 
14 mm. wide near apex. Differs from normal drakes in the presence of 
a dusky spot, 10 mm. long, on the throat. 
No. 341, Coll. A. H. N. ; Penobscot Bay, Me., winter, 1891. 5 . dresseri > 
adult male in high (winter) plumage. Frontal processes 144 mm. -wide 
near apex. Normal except in the presence of a black spot 13 mm. long at 
the position of the apex of the lancet. 
