PLATE II 

 EIDER DUCK. Somateria mollissima 



June 4/A, 1895. This Plate was taken from a nest on the Outer Wide-open 

 Fame Islands. It was built on a ledge of turf covered with sea-campion, 

 among the rocks close to the sea, but considerably above it; the Eider 

 left the nest as we came up and swam about in the sea quite close, watch- 

 ing us. 



After photographing the nest I withdrew about thirty yards from it and 

 sat down to change my plates. I had hardly been two minutes at work when 

 a Lesser Black-backed Gull pounced down on the nest, and, seizing an egg, 

 attempted to fly off with it. The brute had hardly got twenty yards away, when 

 the egg dropped and went to pieces on a rock, so it simply returned to the 

 nest for another, which it bore off successfully. I was powerless to do any- 

 thing, as my arms were both buried in my changing-bag, at work with my 

 slides, and shouting had not the slightest effect. I had taken the precaution 

 of covering up the eggs with the down when I had finished photographing 

 the nest, but even this availed nothing. The Black-backed Gulls destroyed 

 great numbers of the Eiders' nests, often before our eyes, breaking and eating 

 the eggs and scattering the down all over the place. 



On two occasions on the Fame Islands I have seen two Eider Ducks 

 sitting side by side on what was practically the same nest, but on neither 

 occasion was I able to procure a photograph of the fond pair, as they made 

 off before I could get close enough to them. 



