PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 257 



land and occasionally on Holy Island, while Coquet Island has not been occupied 

 since 1875. In Scotland its range is extensive ; it is scarce in the Tweed area though 

 numerous in the Forth and Tay areas, but north of Forfar is practically absent, 

 except near the Ythan (Dee area). On the coasts of the Moray area and East 

 Sutherland it again becomes common, and is plentiful in the Orkneys and Shetlands, 

 as well as along the north coast. It is, however, absent from the West Ross coast, 

 though its range is rapidly extending in W. Scotland, and it breeds freely at many 

 localities in Argyll, extending south to May, Jura, Gigha, etc., and spreading into 

 the Clyde area. Still farther to the south, breeding was first recorded from 

 Kirkcudbright in 1908. It is present on most of the islands of the Inner Hebrides, 

 scarce in Skye, but breeds in Harris and S. Uist. In Ireland it was first found 

 nesting on an islet in Co. Donegal in 1912. Outside the British Isles it breeds in 

 the Faeroes, and plentifully in Iceland ; but Spitsbergen is inhabited by a local race, 

 which is also found in Greenland, and probably in Franz Josef Land. On the 

 Continent it is found along the coast and islands of North Russia from the Kara Sea 

 westward, hi the White Sea and along the Norwegian coast, sparingly in Denmark, 

 but more commonly on the coasts of Sweden and Finland south to Helsingfors. 

 Off the Schleswig-Holstein coast there are strong colonies on Sylt and Norderoog, 

 and recently breeding has been recorded from Vlieland and Terschelling (Holland), 

 while a pair or two nest on an island off the coast of Brittany (Bureau). Allied 

 forms also breed in North America, and North-east Asia. European birds migrate 

 in winter southward along the coast of Europe, and are occasionally recorded 

 from the far interior of the Continent (the lakes of Switzerland, Lower Austria, 

 Hungary, the Balkan Peninsula, etc.), and casually in the Adriatic and on the 

 Azores. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A resident on our coasts from Northumberland and 

 Argyllshire northwards, its numbers being probably increased in winter by 

 immigrants from more northern waters. But on the remainder of the British coast- 

 line the eider-duck is only known as a scarce cold-weather vagrant. Even in 

 Dumfriesshire it is an irregular and uncommon winter visitor, while in Ireland it 

 rarely occurs (chiefly recorded in November), and there is only one record for North 

 Wales : on the east it is uncommon on the Yorkshire coast (immature birds being 

 most frequently obtained), and is very rare in Kent (cf. Gladstone, B. of Dumfries,, 

 1910, p. 292 ; Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 211 ; Forrest, Fauna of 

 N. Wales, 1907, p. 291 ; Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 475 ; and Ticehurst, B. of 

 Kent, 1909, p. 369). Gregarious, and often seen in flocks of hundreds. [A. L. T.] 



