458 ANATID-^. 



it gradually becomes commoner to the northwards ; the 

 examples observed being principally birds of the year. In 

 Northumberland — the only English county in which it 

 breeds — the Eider Duck used to nest on Coquet Island, 

 near Warkworth : a locality abandoned for many years 

 owing to molestation, but the Editor believes that it is 

 again resorted to by a few pairs. On the Fame Islands, a 

 little further north, it has been well known as a breeding 

 species for centuries, and from the circumstance of its nest- 

 ing on an islet once the abode of St. Cuthbert, as well as 

 on Holy Island or Lindisfarne, equally associated with 

 that celebrated Saint of the north-country, this species 

 has been called St. Cuthbert' s Duck. To the west side of 

 England the Eider is only an irregular winter visitant. 



In Scotland the Eider Duck breeds on the shores and 

 islands of the Firth of Forth ; and, probably, where suitable 

 localities present themselves, along the whole east coast ; as 

 it certainly does in the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. In 

 Sutherlandshire, it is of sparing and local distribution during 

 the breeding-season ; and Sir John Campbell-Orde informs 

 the Editor that in North Uist and the neighbouring islands 

 of the Outer Hebrides there is only one locality in which a 

 number of birds nest in proximity. About Colonsay and 

 Islay it is very abundant, but it does not appear to breed on 

 the mainland of Argyll, Ayr, or Wigton. It is somewhat 

 remarkable that the Eider should be a very rare visitor to the 

 Irish coast ; one in Belfast Bay, two or three at the estuary 

 of the Moy, two in Tralee Bay, one in Cork Harbour, a*nd 

 one in Wexford, being all the examples recorded by Sir R. 

 Payne-Gallwey. 



The Eider Duck occurs irregularly in winter on the coasts 

 of Northern Germany, the Netherlands, and France ; and 

 stragglers have been obtained on the inland waters of the 

 Continent, as well as in the Mediterranean as far east as the 

 head of the Adriatic. Its home must, however, be sought 

 for in the north. It breeds in the Faeroes, Iceland, and 

 Norway, where it is protected by law ; and northwards it 

 can be traced to Spitsbergen (where birds are on the average 



