146 BIRD WATCHING 



show a preference for one male over another, and also 

 (though of this I cannot be so sure), a power of dis- 

 missing birds from her. But if she really possesses 

 such a power, she cannot very well assert it when 

 closely pressed upon by a crowd of admirers. I 

 noticed, too, and thought it curious, that a female 

 would often approach a male bird with her head and 

 neck laid flat along the water as though in a very 

 " coming-on disposition," and that the male bird 

 declined her advances. This, taken in conjunction 

 with the actions of the females when courted by the 

 males, appears to me to raise a doubt as to the uni- 

 versal application of the law that throughout nature 

 the male, in courtship, is eager and the female coy. 

 Here, to all appearance, courtship was proceeding, and 

 the birds had not yet mated. The female eider-ducks, 

 however — at any rate some of them — appeared to be 

 anything but coy. As time went on and the birds 

 became paired this curious note of the males became 

 less and less frequent, and at last ceased, a proof, I 

 think, that the note itself is of a nuptial character, 

 and also that the birds at the time they kept uttering 

 it were seeking their mates. 



I regret that I was not able to observe the further 

 breeding or nesting habits of these interesting birds. 

 A few of the females may have laid before I left the 

 island, but the greater number were still on the water. 

 One day I put one up from the heather, upon which I lay 

 down and waited. Soon a pair of them — both females 

 — flew round me and alighted together not far off. 

 Both then lay or crouched in the heather at a few 

 yards from each other. Later, whilst watching from 

 the coast, I saw two female eiders walking side by side 



