636 Eider Duck on the Ythan. 



sitting in dozens by the side of the river, were so tame tliat 

 they allowed me to row to within ten or fifteen ydrds of 

 them before they would move, and then flew only a few 

 hundred yards before again settling. The males are very 

 conspicuous iu their black and white plumage and curiously 

 marked heads, but the dark brown females from a short 

 distance look like stones along the water's edge. 



All day they keep up a ceaseless gabbling noise and 

 mournful crooning, which I can only compare to the sound 

 of people talking some distance away. During May they 

 breed in great numbers among the coarse grass on the 

 sand-dunes, or in the patches of heather, within easy reach 

 of the river. The nests, with the usual lining of eiderdown, 

 contain from four to five eggs of an olive-brown colour; and, 

 I regret to say, a very large number are taken by lads from 

 the neighbouring villages, also by people who ought to know 

 better : one of these had a basketful, and w^hen I suggested 

 that there is such a thing as the " Wild Birds Preservation 

 Act/' replied : " No one bothers about that up here, and 

 the eggs are very good eating." 



My boatman said that the female does not sit until her 

 full complement of eggs is laid, and that " they are verra 

 warm burds " as he put it ; and, once they begin to sit, the 

 great heat from their bodies, helped by the warmth of the 

 sandy surroundings, very quickly hatches out the young. 

 The first I saw this year was on the 3rd of June : two, if not 

 three, broods of newly-hatched little black balls of fluff 

 swimming about with their mothers in a party of ten or 

 fifteen. 



My boatman also informed me that formerly all the Eider 

 Duck, male and female, disappeared in the autumn, but that 

 during the last three or four years a few have remained 

 throughout the winter ; adding that, as soon as all the young 

 are out, the males depart and are seen no more, leaving 

 their families to be looked, after by the mothers — much like 

 paterfamilias, who sometimes seeks a change from his 

 domestic ties and migrates to the Metropole, Brighton, or 

 to Carlsbad for an im-aginary attack of gout ! 



