Sub-fam. 4. _Fuligulinae._–_Somateria mollissima_, the Eider Duck, breeds commonly in Northern Britain, and thence to the Taimyr Peninsula eastwards and the Coppermine River westwards, birds from North-East America being separated as _S. dresseri_; while _S. v-nigrum_, differing in its black V-shaped throat mark, occupies North-East Asia and North-West America. In winter the first-named strays as far as South Europe and the United States; the second has occurred in Holland. The male Eider has white upper parts and buff chest, black lower back, abdomen, and crown, the last showing a white streak; the wing- and tail-quills are brown, the stiff nape-feathers green, while the plumage extends in a peak on the culmen. The female is brown, with blackish bands or stripes and two white alar bars. The bill and feet are olive-green. _S. spectabilis_, the King-Eider of the Northern Arctic Regions, rarely wandering in winter to Britain, France, New Jersey, and California, has the head blue-grey with green and white cheeks, and a black chevron on the throat; the remaining portions {119}being black except for the buff breast, white neck, upper back, lesser wing-coverts, and a patch on each side of the rump. The feet and the bill, with its vertical black-edged disc at the base, are orange. The female is redder than in the Eider, with a more feathered culmen. These species are essentially maritime, only coming to shore to breed; they are semi-gregarious, and form a nest of grass and rubbish, a quantity of down underlying the five to eight oily-green eggs. Eider-down is chiefly procured from Iceland, Greenland, and protected islands in Norway. The flight is low and heavy, the food consists of mussels, starfish, and other sea creatures. _Arctonetta fischeri_, the Spectacled Eider of Alaska, is chiefly white, with dark grey rump and under parts; the head being varied with green and decorated with pendent bristly plumes on the occiput, stiff frontal and loral feathers, and a satin-like quadrangular patch outlined with black on each side. The tail- and wing-quills are brown, except the falcate inner secondaries; the feet are brownish, the bill is orange in the male. The female is fulvous and black with bluish beak. _Heniconetta stelleri_ breeds on the Arctic shores mainly between the Taimyr Peninsula and Alaska, and has strayed to Britain and even France. The head, falcate scapulars, and inner secondaries are white with blue-black outer webs to the two latter, the rest of the wing-quills and tail brown; the back, throat, neck, and a spot on each side of the breast purplish-black; the lores and short occipital tuft green, the lower parts mostly tawny. The female is brown with darker markings, and duller wing-bar. _Camptolaemus labradorius_, the extinct "Pied Duck" of the North Atlantic coast of America, was black, with white head, neck, chest, scapulars, and most of the wings except the primaries; it had a black stripe down the crown and stiff cheek-feathers.