Eleven young birds of the season of 1844, were received
at the Gardens from Scotland on the 24th of August: they
were then about eleven weeks old, of a dark brown colour,
and without distinction in plumage as to sex. About a
month after their arrival the male birds began to get much
darker in colour, almost black, and by the middle of October
a few white feathers began to appear on the back. The
white feathers did not appear on the breast till the middle
of November. This change seemed to go gradually on till
June, when the breeding plumage was observed to be about
half perfect. They began to lose their white plumage about
the same time as the oldest male, but not so much of it, as
a number of the white feathers remained on the back and
breast. They commenced moulting about the same time
as the old bird, and the white plumage came on in them
much the same as on him. No perceptible change takes
place in the plumage of the females.
A pure white female Eider is in the collection of Mr. F.
Bond.
The downy nestling is of a nearly uniform umber-brown
above, and greyish-brown below; the throat is brownish-
white, and there is a well-defined streak of the same colour,
from the base of the bill, above each eye; bill dark olive,
with a yellowish-brown nail.
The windpipe of the male Eider measures nine inches in
length, the tube uniform in size throughout; the bony
labyrinth and inferior tubes as represented below.
S omateria s p e c t a b il is (Linmeus*).
THE KING EIDER.
Somateria spectabilis.
T h e K in g E id e r or King Duck has a less southern breeding
range than the preceding species, and its appearances
on the coasts of the British Islands are rare and irregular.
It is, naturally, more uncommon in the south than in the
north, and, as regards England, the genuine instances
may easily be counted. The authenticity of a King Eider
mentioned by Messrs. Paget on the authority of Mr. Lily
Wigg, as having been killed at Breydon in Norfolk, in July
1818, is more than doubtful ; and the same may be said of
a bird said to have been killed at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in 1827,
and another at Lowestoft in 1854. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun.,
has a female which was obtained, freshly killed, in Leaden-
* Anas spectabilis, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 195 (1766).