DUCKS. 
353 
the female. In the male bird, of which the length is from 22 to 26 inches, the 
prevailing colour of the head and neck in the ordinary dress is white, with an 
oval brown patch on the sides of the latter; the breast, middle of the back, rump, 
and middle tail-feathers are black; the scapulars are striped with white $ and the 
remaining tail-feathers and under-parts pure white. The female is a more sombre- 
coloured bird, with the sides of the head white and those of the neck brown. 
As its Latin name implies, the long-tailed duck is an essentially Arctic species, 
ranging to the most northerly known lands of both hemispheres, and not generally 
migrating very far south in winter, although it has been known to reach Northern 
Italy. Not uncommon as a winter visitor to Britain, it regularly frequents at 
that season the Caspian, Northern China, Japan, and the northern United States. 
Found in numbers on the Kara Sea, and breeding in Novaia Zemlia, Northern 
Russia, and all through North Siberia, this duck is mainly marine in its habits, 
feeding on molluscs, crustaceans, and small fishes, in search of which it dives with 
remarkable expertness. During the breeding-season it resorts, however, to fresh- 
waters, on the margins of which its nests are constructed among low bushes. The 
note of the male is loud, but almost indescribable in words; and when flying 
the members of this sex are said to present an exceedingly graceful appearance, 
moving with very rapid strokes of the wings, with the long tail-feathers 
floating behind. 
d Well known on account of the beautifully soft down collected 
from their nests, the eiders, Somateria, are best characterised by the 
elongated scapulars and emerald or pale green markings on the heads of the males; 
these two characters serving to distinguish them from other diving-ducks. Both 
sexes may be recognised by the beak being shorter than the head, and swollen and 
elevated at the base, with small and lateral nostrils, but more especially by the 
feathers of the forehead extending downwards nearly to the nostrils between its 
divided upper portion. Generally, the prevailing colours of the plumage of the 
males are black and white. The eiders are now represented by six well-defined 
species, confined to the northern regions of the Old World; three of which 
occur in the British Islands, although two are more occasional visitors. The 
common or true eider (S. mollissima), which is mainly confined to the Eastern 
Hemisphere, and is the only resident British species, may be recognised by the 
upper part of the back and scapulars of the male being white in the breeding 
plumage, while the top of the head and under-parts are black; the female being 
pale rufous brown, with darker markings. Young males are at first like the 
females; but in the first year, as shown in the upper figures of our illustration on 
next page, the wing-coverts and secondaries become white, and in the third year 
the full plumage is assumed. In summer, with the second moult, old males become 
almost black. In the king-eider (S. spectabilis), which is circumpolar, although 
but a rare visitor to Britain, the male in breeding-plumage has the upper part of 
the back white, but the elongated scapulars black, and also a black chevron on the 
throat with its apex on the chin. On the other hand, in the handsome Steller’s 
eider (S. stelleri), which is a still more exclusively Arctic bird, the adult male in 
nuptial plumage has the whole back black, the long scapulars white on their inner, 
and bluish black on their outer webs, and a bluish black collar on the neck. 
VOL. iv .—23 
