ANSERES. ( 123 ) ANATIDyE. 



THE EIDER DUCK. 



ST. cuthbert's duck/ dunter goose, great black and 



WHITE DUCK, DUSKY DUCK, CUD-DOO, CULVER DUCK. 



Somateria mollissima. 

 %\)z Cuti=2Doo, W^z Culbect,^ '^^e 2Dunter. 



Wilh instinctive love is drest 



The Eider s downy cradle, where 



The mother bird her glossy breast 



Devotes ; and with maternal care 



And plumeless bosom stems the toiling seas 



That foam round the ternpestuous Orcades. 



C. Smith, Studies of the Sea. 



During the autumn, winter, and spring months the Eider 

 Duck frequents the coast of Berwickshire, usually in small 

 numbers, though occasionally considerable flocks are observed. 

 Mr. Hardy, Oldcambus, who, in his papers on the local migra- 

 tion of birds in the History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club, frequently notices the occurrence of this duck off the 

 coast about Siccar Point from November to May, says : 

 " They utter a noise like the cooing of a Pigeon, and the 

 fishermen call them Cud-doos. They stay all the winter, 

 but are seldom seen off here, and are said to breed in some 

 of the rocks near Fast Castle. In earlier times they also 

 nestled in a rough part of the bank near the Cove Har- 

 bour."^ Amongst many MS. notes on birds with which he 



1 So called from its nesting on the Fame Islands, once the abode of St. 

 Cuthbert. 



2 This, says Mr. Hardy, is one of the coast names of the bird. 



3 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 277. 



