E I D E R .
SOMATEBIA MOLLISSIMA.
Tiioroii iin records exist ns to tlie breeding-ran Re of the Eider having nt any time extended far south of the
Fern Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, scattered parties of these birds may occasionally ho met with
in. autumn and winter off all parts of our southern and eastern shores. At this season they arc shy, and,
usually rising at long distances, the identity of the flock is seldom ascertained. I refer to this fact as Eiders
have repeatedly come under my notice oh* the Norfolk, Suffolk, and Sussex coasts, though hut few instances of
the occurrence of the species in these quarters have been reported.
The numerous brooding-haunts of the Eider round our northern coasts have been so often referred to that
it is superfluous to give a list of those I visited. Though the stations on the islands in the Firth of Forth an
enumerated, the sandy links of Gullanc appear to have escaped the notice of writers. I discovered but one nest
on that lonely stretch of ground, though at daybreak and late in the evening the drakes might be watched
flying over the sand-hills; and this fact was considered a sure sign by the natives (nil noted egg-stealers) that
the females were sitting near at hand. On making inquiries when staying at Canty Hay a few years liaek, I
teamed that the links bad been entirely deserted and that hut few young birds were now reared on the rocky islands
off the coast. The Bass is mentioned by certain authors as a breeding-station ; the constant stream of sightseers
has, however, driven the Eider from this part of the Firth, and on only nu occasion during the last twenty
years have eggs been laid on the rock, the site then chosen being among the ruins below the fortillcations on the
south face. The ledge to which the bird resorted (encumbered with large blocks of fallen masonry, and
luxuriant in summer with the attractive foliage of the sea-beet and Bass mallow •) was at a considerable
height above flic water, with a sheer descent of not less than fifty feel ; under such circumstances it was evident
that the young would need assistance from their parents to reach their natural element. Though juveniles
that had only lately emerged from the shell have been repeatedly met with, in no instance was I enabled
to watch the female in the act of conveying her offspring from the nest to the water. On Fidra, a rocky island
a few miles further up the Firth, I examined, in the summer of ISO", a nest, containing four eggs that
was placed on a shelf of the cliff at an elevation of forty or fifty feet above high-waler mark, from which
the young must have experienced sumo difficulty in making Ihoir escape. Within a distaneo of twentyyards
a couple of nests had been constructed, under the shelter of a huge block of stone, in such close proximity
that the down round their edges was intermixed.
On the Fern Islands, where I also inspected the breeding-haunts of these flue birds, they may be termed
partially domesticated. The females appear to select the neighbourhood of the store-houses and other
buildings as a protection from the attacks of the E'-scr Black-backed litills; these robbers, whose quarters are
near at hand, evince a decided partiality for the eggs of the Eider, and should an opportunity occur they