202 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



The eggs are from five to seven, or rarely even 

 eight, pale olive-green or greenish-gray in colour, 

 and smooth and wax-like in texture. In many 

 places the Eider is jealously protected for the sake 

 of its precious down, especially in Iceland and 

 Norway, and the taking of the eggs or down by 

 unauthorized persons is an offence punishable by 

 law. Outside our limits, the Eider inhabits most of 

 the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic. The 

 much rarer King Eider, Somateria spectabilis an 

 occasional visitor to the British Seas claims a 

 passing reference, for it is by no means improbable 

 that the species actually breeds within our limits. 



COMMON SCOTER. 



Of all the hordes of Ducks that pour southwards 

 in autumn, down the western coasts of Europe, 

 and find a winter resort in the British Seas, the 

 present species, the Anas nigra of Linnaeus, the 

 Fuligula nigra of many writers, and CEdemia nigra 

 of others who regard the Scoters as generically 

 distinct from the Pochard and allied forms, is cer- 

 tainly by far the commonest. It is known on almost 

 all parts of the coast as the "Black Duck." Few 

 other Ducks are so absolutely marine as the Scoter ; 

 no weather is bad enough to drive it ashore, and it 

 seldom visits the land at all, except for purposes 

 of reproduction. It is a gregarious bird, and so 

 large are some of its gatherings off the British 

 coasts, that it literally blackens the sea with its 



