STELLEE'8 WESTERN DUCK.
WESTERN EIDER. WESTERN POCH \UD. WESTERN DUCK.
Anas dispar, TEMMINCK.
Fuligula dispar,
Polysticta Stellen,
Somateria dispar,
SELBY. JENYNS.
EYTON.
Anas—A Duck. Dispar— D i fie re n t.
T H I S Duck, first described by Steller, is a native of tbc north, of
Europe, Asia, and America. A few have been killed in Sweden and
Denmark, as also in Germany. In the second-mentioned continent it
is found in Siberia and Kamtschatka, and others of the boreal regions.
I n Yorkshire one of these birds was shot at Filey, August 15th.,
1845. In Norfolk, one, a male, at Caisted, near Yarmouth, on the
10th. of February, 1830.
The places they inhabit are rocky coasts and the mouths of rivers,
belonging, as they do, to the class of those kindred species, which
' i n aquis degunt.'
They are said to assemble in flocks, and the male and female to
keep permanently together.
They fly with much case and rapidity, and also swim and dive
well.
Their food is made up of the small fry of fish, sea-insects, and
their larva3.
This species breeds, it is said, on high and steep rocks.
This is a bird of striking and handsome appearance. Male; length,
one foot seven inches; bill, brownish black, the tip yellow; upon the
forehead and between the upper mandible and the eye is a pale
green spot. From the base of the lower mandible a blackish brown
streak goes down to or nearly to a broad collar of the same colour,
which encircles the neck and joins that of the back. Iris, pale
VOL. V. 2 B