EIDER DUCK. 205 



in 995. Though Lindisfarn thus lost its importance as a 

 bishop's see, it was not entirely deserted as a place of reli- 

 gious abode ; for a cell of Benedictine monks, dependent on 

 the abbey at Durham, was afterwards established there, which 

 continued to the suppression of the monasteries by Henry 

 the Eighth." 



Mr. J, Macgillivray, who visited the outer Hebrides in 

 the summer of 1840, mentions that these birds breed on 

 several of the islands there, more particularly that called 

 Haskir. Mr. Bullock brought nest, down, eggs, and young 

 birds, from Papa Westra, one of the Orkneys, in 1812; and 

 this species has since been observed on the islands of Orkney 

 and Shetland by Mr. Drosier, Mr. Salmon, Mr. Dunn, and 

 others, from 1828 to the present time. Mr. Hewitson men- 

 tions that the Eider was the most numerous of the Ducks 

 breeding on some of the islands on the west coast of Norway, 

 where they are strictly protected. Upon one island which 

 Mr. Hewitson and his friend visited, in company with the 

 keeper, the females were sitting in great numbers, and were 

 so perfectly tame, and on such familiar terms with him, that 

 they did not appear to be in the least disturbed whilst we 

 stood by to look at them, and some of them would even 

 allow him to stroke them on the back with his hand. The 

 male birds at this time were floating about in hundreds among 

 the islands, giving the sea a lively and even beautiful appear- 

 ance. Earl Derby"'s principal menagerie keeper, who was 

 sent to Sweden in the summer of 1839, brought back with 

 him a brood of young Eiders, which he reared, feeding them 

 on slugs, and the bodies of shelled mollusca. Several of 

 these birds are now alive at Knowsley. Eider, Eder, or 

 Eddei-, is the name applied to this Duck in Germany, 

 Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. It is found on the Faro 

 Islands, at Iceland, at Spitzbergen, and at Nova Zembla. 

 Mr. Scoresby observes that the specimens seen by him at 



