FEMALE EIDER DUCK. 21 1 
oyer the wing* ; legs, short, yellow ; webs of the feet, 
dusky. 
Latham has given us the following sketch of the 
gradual progress of the young males to their perfect 
colours : “ In the first year the back is white, aijd the 
usual parts, except the crown, black ; but the rest of 
the body is variegated with black and white. In the 
second year the neck and breast are spotted black and 
white, and the crown black. In the third the colours 
are nearly as when in full plumage, but less vivid, and 
a few spots of black still remaining on the neck ; the 
crown, black, and bifid at the back part. 
“ The young of both sexes are the same, being covered 
with a kind of hairy down ; throat and breast, whitish ; 
and a cinereous line from the bill through the eyes to 
the hindhead.” * 
288. ANAS MOLLISSIMA, LINNAEUS AND WILSON. 
FEMALE EIDER DUCK. 
WILSON, PLATE LXXI. FIG. III. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
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 his 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 
Synopsis, iii, p. 471. 
