EIDEB DUCK 139 



will even suffer herself to be stroked with the fingers. 

 However, when put off her nest, she squirts a foul-smelling 

 liquid over her eggs, as sitting-ducks are wont to do. The 

 Drakes keep apart in small assemblies while their mates 

 are hatching. 



In districts where this species is plentiful, the nests are 

 often in such close proximity that the birds may be said to 

 breed in colonies. 



The only breeding-haunts which are known to exist in 

 England, are off the coast of Northumberland, where on 

 the Farne Islands quite a large number of birds nest. 

 Coquet Island appears to be the most southern breed- 

 ing-station (Harting, ' Handbook of British Birds,' p. 260). 

 Along both sides of the Scottish sea-board, including 

 the Orkneys, Shetlands, Inner and Outer Hebrides, and 

 other islands along the western side, the Eider Duck occurs 

 as a nesting-species. Strange to say, though it breeds and 

 is seen in large flocks on Islay, it occurs only as a rare 

 winter-visitor to the Irish coast, even to Eathlin Island, 

 separated from its breeding-haunts by less than twenty 

 miles of water (Ussher). In Scotland it is increasing as a 

 nesting-species (Harvie Brown). 



Geographical distribution. Abroad, this species nests 

 abundantly in Iceland, the Faroes, and Norway, in which 

 countries it is strictly preserved ; it also breeds in the 

 Arctic regions of Europe and Western Asia. When migrat- 

 ing in winter, it visits the coasts and seas of Europe, only 

 small numbers wandering as far south as the Mediterranean. 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Top and front of head, 

 black, this colour being prolonged in the form of a point of 

 feathers along the middle line of the beak half way to the 

 nostrils ; a white median line interrupts the black on the 

 top of the head ; back of upper neck, pale sea-green ; hind 

 part of cheeks, same colour, these two green patches being 

 separated by a whitish line ; rest of cheeks, throat, upper 

 neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, white ; primaries 

 and outer secondaries, brownish-black, and crossed by the 

 long curved drooping inner secondaries ; these feathers are 

 of a yellowish-white tinge ; lower neck and breast, warm 

 rosy-buff; abdomen, upper and under tail-coverts, black; 

 tail, brownish-black ; flanks behind the legs, patched with 

 white. 



