BIRDS. 179 



This is an extremely early date for young birds to be well 

 enough grown to show such difference in plumage. 



Mr. Irvine-Fortescue writes us as follows : " I have seen a 

 pair or two with young ones in Swanbister Bay, but not for a 

 year or two. They are more numerous along the Hoy and 

 Walls shores of Scapa Flow and among the north isles. I 

 have seen a nest among the heather, fully 200 yards from the 

 nearest water (a small loch), and half a mile from the sea, and 

 about 100 feet above sea level. Eiders (I have an idea) do 

 not lay above three eggs at a time." l 



Mr. E. S. Cameron, of Burgar House, sends us the following 

 interesting notes, which we here reproduce in full: "The 

 Eider has increased very largely during the last few years, and 

 I attribute this to the better protection afforded to their eggs 

 (a favourite food of the crofter and fisher classes), by the 

 proprietors of the smaller islets and holms, such as Eynhallow 

 and Damsay, this latter belonging to the Scarths of Binscarth." 



" With regard to Eynhallow, the following facts speak for 

 themselves. Previous to my purchase of the island in 1884, I 

 never saw more than two or three broods of young Eiders 

 about its shores, the first eggs laid there being invariably taken 

 by fishermen and others. In 1884 I set to work to preserve 

 the island strictly, and engaged a man, James Wood, to reside 

 there during the nesting season. One dark and stormy night 

 the house he lived in was pulled down and the furniture thrown 

 into the sea. Wood was fortunately absent at the time getting 

 provisions. In 1887, there were 200 Eider Ducks' nests on 

 Eynhallow, and the number of broods hatched out was 190. 

 The greatest number of eggs seen by me in one nest was ten, 

 the average number of the clutch being four or five." 



" I have seen three nests in a space of a yard in circumference. 

 When the young of the Eider are all hatched she carries them 

 to the sea upon her back, and this she has been seen to do by 

 William Wood, farm bailiff, and James Wood, my watcher on 

 Eynhallow. When staying, during Christmas 1886, with General 



1 Three to four is a very usual number in the Outer Hebrides (see Fauna 

 of 0. H. p. 108). Nine have been found (op. cit.), and five is common in the 

 Inner Hebrides. J. A. H.-B. 



