EIDER DUCK. 475 



The Hornby Decoy example, alleged to have been captured 

 about i860 (" Handbook of Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire," 

 p. 58), proved, on investigation by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, 

 to be an imported specimen. 



EIDER DUCK. 



Somateria mollissima (Z.). 



Winter visitant, not common. 



The first reference to the Eider in Yorkshire, though of a 

 rather dubious character, may be said to be the quotation 

 from Strickland in Allis's Report : — 



Anas nioUtssima. — Eider — A. Strickland says that " Though this 

 bird is abundant in parts in the north, it seems very seldom to stray 

 much to the south, I have seldom known it killed on this coast " 

 (Thomas Allis, 1844). 



This handsome and conspicuous duck is a casual visitant 

 in winter, generally in immature plumage, though, now that 

 its numbers have so greatly increased at the Fame Isles, 

 there seems every probability that its occurrence may be 

 looked for with greater frequency on the Yorkshire coast. 



Arthur Strickland (in Allis's Report), though mentioning 

 it as " seldom killed on this coast," did not give any specific 

 instance within his knowledge. 



It has been met with at sea off Spurn in full plumage, 

 an adult male be ng picked up on the beach in January 1893 

 (Nat. 1893, p. 104) ; and a young male, shot there, is in 

 the Hull Museum. 



Mr. T. Boynton has an example taken at Flamborough 

 in 1868, and at Filey it is recorded on four occasions ; the 

 first in November 1864, the latest in the winter of 1902-03. 



At Scarborough, one, out of four seen, was obtained in 

 December 1891 ; at Whitby, three have been procured between 

 1888 and 1897 ; and in the Redcar district I have notes of 

 its appearance in 1879, 1888, and 1891 ; in addition to these 

 occurrences, on 26th February 1894, I watched, through a 

 powerful telescope, a very fine old drake sitting on Salt Scar, 



