EIDER DUCK. 379 



has also informed me that he has frequently placed the eggs under 

 a domestic duck, and had the satisfaction of seeing Eiders brought 

 up safely in the barn yard. The experiment has repeatedly been 

 tried in other parts of the Outer Hebrides, and proved equally 

 successful. The nest of this bird is a somewhat bulky structure of 

 matted heather, sea-weed, and grass, and is lined with a profusion 

 of down and feathers. The eggs are from five to seven, or some- 

 times eight in number, and appear to vary in size. I have seen 

 quantities of eggs sent to Glasgow poulterers from Islay, where 

 Eiders are found numerously all the year, especially at Ardnave and 

 Sanaig, on the north-west side of the island. Similar consignments 

 are occasionally sent to market from the islands of Tyree and Coll. 

 Southwards of Islay the Eider Duck is but a winter straggler. 

 Mr St. John ( 'Tour in Sutherland,' vol. i., p. 140) states that it 

 breeds on some islands at the entrance of the Kyle of Tongue, on 

 the north coast of Sutherlandshire, and it probably still breeds on 

 the islands of Suleskeir and North Eona, as it did 300 years ago 

 in the time of Dean Monro, who gives a very quaint account of its 

 habits, under the name of Colk, in his 'Description of the Hybrides/ 

 published in 1594. Martin ('Descr. West Islands of Scot./ London, 

 2d ed., 1716) also mentions the bird, which he distinguishes by 

 the same name (the Gaelic one still in use), and gives a most 

 glowing and exaggerated description of its plumage, which he com- 

 pares to that of a peacock! His account was probably copied 

 from previous writers, as he repeats what is stated by Dean 

 Monro, viz., that the bird " lived mostly in the remotest islands, 

 as Heisker and Rona." At the close of his ornithological re- 

 cords, however, he makes the following highly curious remark, 

 which may, to some extent, account for his magnified description: 

 "The Air is here moist and moderately cold; the Natives qualify 

 it sometimes by drinking a Glass of Usquebaugh. The Moisture 

 of this Place is such that a Loaf of Sugar is in danger to be 

 dissolved/' The precise nature of the humidity is not explained, 

 nor yet the cure, though the melting of the sugar is rather 

 suggestive. 



In the east of Scotland, where this bird is called St. Cuthbert's 

 Duck, considerable flocks make their appearance off the coasts of 

 East Lothian and Berwickshire. These are probably natives of 

 the Fern islands, the numbers which breed on the islands in the 

 Firth of Forth being now much reduced. 



