Plate 246
Havell CCXLVI
Edier Duck
(Somateria mollissima)
“The history of this remarkable duck must ever be looked upon with great interest by the student of nature,” Audubon wrote. “The depressed form of its body, the singular shape of its bill, the beautiful colouring of its plumage, the value of its down as an article of commerce, and the nature of its haunts, render it a very remarkable species.” Audubon may have drawn these eiders, with the female in the background and two white-backed males in the foreground, near Eastport, Maine, in May of 1833. “I have represented three of these birds in a state of irritation. A mated pair, having a few eggs already laid, have been approached by a single male, and are in the act of driving off the intruder, who, to facilitate his retreat, is lashing his antagonists with his wings.”
Source: The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon. Copyright 1966 by American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.
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