Pacific Eider
Somateria mollissima v-nigrum Bonaparte & Gray, GR, 1855
Photo © Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=163435
Sub-species
STATUS
Nearctic.
OVERVIEW
Sub-species not admitted nationally (BOU 1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). 1904 Orkney Off Graemsay, shot, 14th December.
(W. J. Clarke, Zoologist 1905: 74, F. Stubbs, Zoologist 1905: 142-143; H. W. Robinson, Field 18th Feb., 1905; W. P. Pycraft, Knowledge 1905: 39; Nature 1905; H. W. Robinson, Zoologist 1905: 143).
[C. Oldham, Zoologist 1905: 185].
History W. J. Clarke (1905) in The Zoologist, 4th series, Vol. IX. p. 74, says: 'Pacific Eider (Somateria v-nigrum). - A fine adult male specimen in full plumage was shot in the Orkneys on Dec. 14th, and was sent to me in the flesh. This is, I believe, the first British record for this species. The specimen is now in the Oldham Museum.'
Fred Stubbs (1905) in The Zoologist, 4th series, Vol. IX. pp. 142-143, says: 'The bird recorded by Mr. W. J. Clarke in The Zoologist (ante, p. 74) differs in several features from the descriptions of the species given by Gray (Proc. Zool. Soc., Lond., pt. xxiii, p. 211, 1855), and Salvadori (Cat. Birds, Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVII. p. 431). On Dec. 17th (three days after death) the bare spaces at the base of the bill were dull ochreous yellow, and the tip clear horn-colour. The tarsi and toes were olive-green, the webs blackish, and the irides dark brown. On comparing the bird with the Common Eider, and the type-specimen of Dresser's Eider in the Owens College Museum, Manchester, several differences not given by Salvadori or Gray were noticed. In the Pacific Eider the bare spaces of the bill and the feathered wedge on the culmen are far more acute than in the common species; and, as the latter feature is said to be apparent even in the young in down, it may possibly serve as a means of separating the females of the two species. In the Orkney bird the green colour of the occiput does not extend towards the eyes as a border to the black cap, in this point resembling the Common Eider, and differing from Dresser's Eider and the plate of the Pacific Eider which accompanies Gray's original description of the species. The specimen was exhibited at a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club on Jan. 18th (vide Bulletin of the B.O.C., CXII, p. 32).'
W. P. Pycraft (1905) in Knowledge, new series, Vol. II. p. 39, under 'Ornithological', says: 'An adult male of the Pacific Eider, Somateria-v-nigra was killed during December at Scarborough. This is the first authentic instance of the occurrence of this bird in Great Britain. Closely resembling our Common Eider, S. molissima, it may be distinguished therefrom by the V-shaped mark on the throat, and the bright orange colour of the bill.
The Pacific Eider is found in great numbers in North-Western America and North-Eastern Asia.'
H. W. Robinson (1905) in The Zoologist, 4th series, Vol. IX. p. 143, says: 'In the February number of Knowledge I see the Pacific Eider (Somateria v-nigrum) mentioned as having been shot at Scarborough, Yorkshire, on Dec. 16th, 1904, the same mistake occurring in Nature. In the Field of Feb. 18th I gave the full history of the specimen, which was not shot in England at all, but in Orkney. It is as follows: - It was shot by George Sutherland, my assistant boatman, on Dec. 14th, off the island of Graemeay, near Stromness, before my arrival in the islands. He sent it with some other Eiders to a taxidermist in Scarborough, who wrote to young Sutherland, and told him that he could not pay him the usual price for it as it was such a poor specimen, and could therefore give him only half a crown for it! The buyer sold it to the Oldham Natural History Society as a Common Eider, and the secretary of this Society sent it up to South Kensington, where it was identified as a Pacific Eider. In January and February, 1904, I was also wildfowling in Orkney, and Sutherland senior, uncle of the above youth, described a bird which he had shot some years ago, which I took to be an American Eider, and this year he told me that this particular bird was identical in all respects with the one shot by his nephew; so the species has occurred before in Great Britain, and the new specimen is not the first occurrence in Europe. On Feb. 22nd we saw, in the Bay of Ireland, near Stromness, a very peculiar female Eider, a single bird, which we hit three times, but failed to bag. She was much smaller than the Common Eider, and was very light coloured, the head appearing to be almost white. I had my glass on her for nearly half a hour before we came up to her. as the wind had dropped completely, and could not make her out at all; neither could either of my boatmen, the Sutherlands, who are professional fowlers, and have shot hundreds of Eiders. What was she? is it possible that she was the widow of the late lamented Pacific Eider drake?'
C. Oldham (1905) in The Zoologist, 4th series, Vol. IX. p. 185, says: 'As the bird is not in existence, or at any rate cannot be produced, Mr. Robinson is hardly justified in stating (ante, p. 143) that the Eider which was shot some years ago by S. Sutherland establishes the occurrence of the Pacific Eider in British waters. Some of the species of Somateria resemble one another very closely, and nothing less than a detailed description of the specific characters can be deemed satisfactory evidence of the occurrence of one of these critical species. Sutherland's recollection of the bird is obviously vague, for in a letter referring to the Graemsay example he says: - " It had a very fine shaped V under the throat, a mark very seldom seen. I have seen it before, but very rare." Even if it be granted that he shot an Eider with a black chevron on the chin, the possibility remains that it was a King-Eider (S. spectabilis), a species of which at least four examples have been recorded from Orkney, or a Dresser's Eider (S. dresseri), a species which sometimes has a dusky chevron on the chin, and in other respects very closely resembles S. v-nigrum. Dresser's Eider is, judging from its geographical range, more likely to occur in British waters than is the Pacific species; it has, as a matter of fact, been obtained in Holland (cf. Saunders, Manual of British Birds, 2nd edit, p. 460). Whatever the bird may have been which Mr. Robinson and his boatmen saw near Stromness in February last, it certainly was not a female Pacific Eider, for he describes it as smaller than a Common Eider, with a head which appeared to be almost white. The average measurements of S. v-nigrum exceed those of S. mollissima, but the females of the two species and of S. dresseri are practically alike in coloration, and can only be distinguished with certainty by the differences in the shape of the bare spaces at the base, and the feathered wedge in the centre of the upper mandible.'
