EIDER DUCK 139 
will even suffer herself to be stroked with the fingers. 
However, when put off her nest, she squirts a foul-smelling 
liquid over her eggs, as sitting-ducks are wont to do. The 
Drakes keep apart in small assemblies while their mates 
are hatching. 
In districts where this species is plentiful, the nests are 
often in such close proximity that the birds may be said to 
breed in colonies. 
The only breeding-haunts which are known to exist in 
England, are off the coast of Northumberland, where on 
the Farne Islands quite a large number of birds nest. 
Coquet Island appears to be the most southern breed- 
ing-station (Harting, ‘ Handbook of British Birds,’ p. 260). 
Along both sides of the Scottish sea-board, including 
the Orkneys, Shetlands, Inner and Outer Hebrides, and 
other islands along the western side, the Eider Duck occurs 
as a nesting-species. Strange to say, though it breeds and 
is seen in large flocks on Islay, it occurs only as a rare 
winter-visitor to the Irish coast, even to Rathlin Island, 
separated from its breeding-haunts by less than twenty 
miles of water (Ussher). In Scotland it is increasing as a 
nesting-species (Harvie Brown). 
Geographical distribution. — Abroad, this species nests 
abundantly in Iceland, the Faroes, and Norway, in which 
countries it is strictly preserved; it also breeds in the 
Arctic regions of Europe and Western Asia. When migrat- 
ing in winter, it visits the coasts and seas of Europe, only 
small numbers wandering as far south as the Mediterranean. 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial_—Top and front of head, 
black, this colour being prolonged in the form of a point of 
- feathers along the middle line of the beak half way to the 
nostrils; a white median line interrupts the black on the 
top of the head; back of upper neck, pale sea-green ; hind 
part of cheeks, same colour, these two green patches being 
separated by a whitish line; rest of cheeks, throat, upper 
neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, white; primaries 
and outer secondaries, brownish-black, and crossed by the 
long curved drooping inner secondaries ; these feathers are 
of a yellowish-white tinge ; lower neck and breast, warm 
rosy-buff; abdomen, upper and under tail-coverts, black ; 
tail, brownish-black ; flanks behind the legs, patched with 
white. 
