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THE FIRST NESTLNG OF THE COMMON EIDER 



IN IRELAND. 



BY 



H. W. ROBINSON, m.b.o.l. 



The Common Eider [Somateria m. mollissima) has not 

 hitherto been recorded as a nesting species in Ireland, 

 but two nests were found there this year by a friend of 

 mine, and I have seen the eggs and down from one of 

 them. 



He found the nests on a small island off the coast of 

 county Down, about three-quarters of a mile in extent 

 and close to the mainland, on June 2nd, 1912, and also 

 saw the two pairs of birds. The nests were situated 

 at either extremity of the island, three-quarters of a 

 mile apart, and were placed among large boulders. The 

 clutches were only small ones of three and four respec- 

 tively, being about fourteen days incubated, if not 

 more. 



The Eider Duck is only known in Ireland at any time 

 of the year as a somewhat rare straggler, under forty, 

 according to the Hand-List of British Birds, having been 

 recorded in all, so that these two records of the species 

 nesting there are doubly interesting. My friend, who 

 did not know that the record was a new one, but thought 

 it very unusual, has visited the same coast in June three 

 years in succession, but saw no Eiders there during his 

 previous visits, and they are a new species also to the 

 local boatmen. 



[This is a most interesting extension of the known 

 breeding-range of the Eider, and we think it was a 

 great pity that the eggs were taken. Careful diagnosis 

 of the bird and a piece of the down from the nest, 

 would have been amply sufficient for identification. 

 Any action which tends to check a natural extension 

 of breeding-range, or which is liable to endanger the 

 successful rearing of its young by a rare breeding bird, 

 is to be greatly deplored. — Eds.] 



