EIDER, Somateria mollissima, a large marine duck, famous for its down. The common eider nests on low rocky islets near the coast, and in Iceland and Norway has long been afforded every encouragement and protection. Despite its clumsy appear ance, the eider flies fast and dives admirably. The male in breed ing dress is velvet-black beneath and white above. In the "eclipse" plumage, he resembles the female, which is dark reddish-brown, barred with black. The nest is lined with the down from the mother's breast and contains a variable number of eggs. By removing both down and eggs at intervals of a few days, the owners of the "eider-fold" make the birds deposit both during the whole season, though they are careful to allow every bird to hatch a clutch of eggs ultimately. The eider breeds from the Farne Islands to Spitzbergen. When the female is disturbed at the nest, she trails off in front of the intruder as if wounded. In America the allied S. dresseri nests from the coasts of New foundland northwards and also in Greenland ; north of the Danish settlements there, however, it is replaced by the king-eider (S. spectabilis), a very beautiful bird which also nests in Spitzbergen. On the west coast of North America occur S. v-nigra and two other eiders, the spectacled eider and steller's eider, the last a bird of the high Arctic and sub-Arctic coasts of the northern hemisphere. The extinct Labrador duck (S. labradoria) also be longs to this group.