OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 435 



quick, the wings being beaten very regularly ; but on occasion the bird can fly 

 with astounding speed, as I have on many occasions learnt to my own humilia- 

 tion. The Eider is a remarkably silent bird, its usual note being a not very loud 

 kurr, but in the breeding season the drake makes a cooing noise when paying 

 court to his mate, accompanying it with a bobbing motion of the head, usually as 

 he swims round and round her, guarding her from the attentions of rivals. The 

 Eider is not very social, and seldom mingles with other fowl. Its flesh, as I can 

 testify from experience, is not unpalatable when prepared by a skilful cook. 



Nidification. In our Islands the small flocks of Eiders begin to break up 

 more distinctly into pairs towards the latter end of March, but the eggs are 

 seldom laid until the middle or end of May, and in the Arctic regions not before 

 the end of June. The nest, wherever possible, is built on a small uninhabited 

 island, a rocky one by preference, moderately level, but covered with plenty of 

 marine vegetation. In some places it is made among ruins, where the fallen 

 masonry offers snug sites ; at others it is on the top of the cliffs, or among the 

 long heather of the hillsides that slope to the sea. I have seen it at the very top 

 of cliffs several hundred feet in height on the Island of Doon, in the St. Kilda 

 group. Usually it is not very far from the water, but reliable instances are on 

 record where it has been discovered several miles from the sea, and at an elevation 

 of one thousand feet above the sea level. The nest is generally made amongst 

 sea campion or coarse grass, but often in a crevice of low rocks, or on a ledge of 

 the same. It is usually a bulky, well-made structure, composed of dry grass and 

 bits of other marine herbage, sometimes twigs of heather, and is well and 

 warmly lined with down plucked from the body of the female, gradually accumu- 

 lated as the eggs are laid. The eggs are six or seven in number, sometimes eight, 

 and vary in colour from cream-grey to greyish -green, smooth and wax-like in 

 texture, but with little gloss. They measure on an average 3'1 inches in length 

 by 2'0 inches in breadth. The down tufts are moderate in size, and vary 

 from brownish-grey to greyish-brown with obscure pale centres. This down is 

 the highly. prized article of commerce, used for stuffing quilts and other purposes, 

 and valued, when cleaned, at about twenty shillings per pound. Each Duck 

 produces about four ounces of down in the season. In Greenland. Iceland, and 

 in some parts of Norway the birds are regularly farmed for this product. 

 (Further particulars of this industry may be obtained in our work entitled, 

 Stray Feathers from many Birds, p. 21.) Incubation, performed entirely by the 

 female, lasts twenty-eight days. When suddenly flushed from the eggs, the 

 female Eider almost invariably discharges excreta over them and the nest as 

 she hurries away. Mr. Trevor-Battye remarked the same peculiarity amongst 

 the Eiders (as well as the Long-tailed Duck) breeding on Spitzbergen. 

 (Conf. Ibis 1897, p. 585.) When the young are hatched the mother soon 

 conveys her brood to the sea, carrying them in many cases one by one in her bill. 



