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The King Eider.
(Somateria spectabilis)
The colouring and the tubercle or knob of the King-Eider's beak are special features of the drake, the female Eider wearing a very modest garb compared with the brilliant plumage of her mate, and having a flat beak of dull bluish-grey tint. The young drake resembles his mother in colouring, the bright orange and the knob on the beak being developed as he approaches maturity. The King-Eider is a dweller in the far north, nesting only within the Artic Circle and never leaving those latitudes except when driven south in very hard winters. It feeds largely upon mussels, diving down to the mussel-beds in deep water.