FARNE ISLANDS AND THEIR BIRDS 181 



ing along the shore, and probing with their beaks in 

 the shallow pools. Two eider ducks, disturbed off 

 their nests by our passing, are seen walking or we 

 might call it crawling back to their eggs. Eider 



NEST OF EIDER DUCK 



ducks sit very closely ; but I found that if we went 

 too near they scrambled off their downy nests, and 

 half ran, half fluttered away. The oft - repeated- 

 statement to the effect that anyone could stroke the 

 backs of eider ducks as they sat, I found to be a 



