crowded with blackish spots. The upper plumage mostly pitch-black, with yellowish-brown
edgings. Breast and flanks yellowish-brown, spotted and barred with black. Belly the same
colours intimately mixed. Bill as in.the female.
Dimensions
Of the male.
Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. Inch, Lin.
, total 24 6 Length of bill to rictus . 2 7 Length of hind toe 0 74
of tail . 4 3 ,, of tarsus . • 1 io| „ of its nail • • 0 2f
of wing . 11 6 „ of middle toe . . 2 5 . Height of frontal plates . 1 6
of bill to front . 1 2 of middle nail . 0 5 Breadth of ditto . 1 0
—R.
[206.] 2. S o m a t e r ia m o l l is s im a . (Leach.) The Eider.
Sub-family, Fuligulinae, Swains. Genus, Somateria, Leach.
Great black and white duck. Edwards, pi. 98.
Eider duck. Penn., Arct. Zool, ii., p. 553, No. 480. Wils., viii., p. 122, pl.,71, f- 2 and 3.
Canard eider (Anas mollissima). Temm., ii., p. 848.
Anas mollissima. Sab., Greenl. Birds, p. 554, No.27. Richards., App. Parry’s Second
Voy., p. 370, No. 31*.
Fuligula (Somateria) mollissima. Bonap. Syn.,t$o. 331.
Mittek. Esquimaux. Dunter duck. Hudson’s Bay Residents.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed June 14, 1822, at Winter Island, lat. 66° 114' N.
Colour.—Circumference of the frontal plates, forehead, crown, and under eyelid, deep
scotch-blue j hind head, nape, and temples, siskin-green. Stripe on the top of the head,
cheeks, chin, neck, breast, back, scapulars, lesser coverts, curved tertiaries, sides of the rump,
and under wing coverts, white; the tertiaries tinged with greenish-yellow, and the breast
with buff. Greater coverts, quills, rump, tail and its coverts, and the under plumage, pitch-
black; the ends of the quills and tail fading to brown. Bill oil-green. Legs greenish-
yellow.
Form typical. Bill prolonged on the lengthened depressed forehead into two narrow flat
plates that are separated by an angular projection of the frontal plumage. Nostrils not
pervious. Neck short and thick. Wings nearly three inches shorter than the tail. Hind toe
attenuated posteriorly into a broad lobe.
The female is yellowish-brown, barred with black; the wing coverts black, edged with ferruginous
; greater coverts and secondaries narrowly tipped with white; head and upper part
of the neck marked with dusky stripes. Under plumage clove brown, with obscure darker
blotches. The young male resembles the female, and is said not to attain its full plumage
till the fourth year.
* The eggs of the Eider measure three inches in length, andt^o in breadth. They vary much in the obtuseness of
their ends.—R.
Dimensions.
Length, total 25 6 Length of bill to rictus
Inch. Lin.
. 2 10 Length Of middle nail . 0 5>
of tail , , i. 4 6 „ of tarsus . . 2 1 „ of hind toe « . 0 9
,, of wing i 12 9 „ of middle toe . . 2 8 ,, of its nail . . 0 4
„ ‘ of bill to front . 2 1 — R .
[207.] 1. O id e m ia p e r s p ic il l a t a . (Stephens.) S u r f Duck.
Sub-family, Fuligulinae, Swains. Genus, Oidemia, Fleming-.
Great black duck from Hudson’s Bay. Edwards, pi. 155.
Anas perspicillata. Forster, Phil. Trans., lxii., p. 417, No. 49.
Black duck (Anas perspicillata'). Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 556, No. 483. Wils., viii., p. 49, pi. 67, f. 1, male.
Canard marchand (Anas perspicillata). Temm., ii., p. 853.
Oidemia perspicillata. St e ph . Gen. Zool., xii., 2, p. 219.
Fuligula perspicillata. Bonap. Syn., No. 333.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed at Fort Franklin.
Colour, velvet-black, with a reddish reflexion. Throat brownish. A broad white band
between the eyes, and a triangular patch of the same on the nape. Bill reddish-orange, the
unguis paler; a square black spot on the lateral protuberance. Legs orange; webs brown.
Form.—Bill much like that of Oidemia fusca, but the lateral protuberances are naked and
horny, and the central one is feathered farther down. The lamina are distant, and the lower
ones particularly prominent, with cutting edges. As in the other Oidemia, the bill and forehead
are inflated, causing the head to. appear lengthened and the crown depressed. The
nostrils are rather large, and nearer to the point than to the rictus.
Female browner; under plumage, in particular, paler; back and wing-coverts narrowly
edged with grey; breast, flanks, and ears, with some whitish edgings. Bill black ; its base
riot so much inflated, and the nostrils smaller than in the male.
Dimensions.
Inch. Lin. • Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin.
Length, total 24 0 Length of bill above . . 1 44 Length of middle toe . 2 4
„ Of tail . 3 9 ,, of bill to rictus .. 2 7 „ of its nail . o 44
-y, - of wing . . 9 6 „ of tarsus . 1 3 „ of outer toe . 2 2
— R .
[208.] 2. O id e m ia f u s c a . (Fleming.) Velvet Duck.
Sub-family, Fuligulinae, Swains. Genus, Oidemia, Fleming.
Velvet duck (Anas fused). Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 555, No. 482. Wils., viii. p. 137, pi. 72, f. 3.
Fuligula (Oidemia) fusca. Bonap. Syn., No. 335, p. 390.
Mookataw-sheep. Chippeways.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed at Fort Franklin.
Colour pitch-black, deepening to raven-black on the crown, nape, and rump ; frontal fea-
* 3 M