eider duck. 253 



The Eider Duck. 



Somateria mollissima, Leach. 



Somateria mollissima, Leach, in Cat. Mus. Brit. Selby, Brit. 

 Orn. ii. 338. Northern Zool. ii. 448. Anas mollissima, 

 Linn., Auct., Wilson, viii. pi. 92. f. 2. and 3. Montagu, 

 Orn. Diet. vol. i. and Suppl. Oie a duvet, ou Eider, 

 Buffon, PI Enl. 289. 209. male and female. Canard 

 Eider, Temm. Man. Orn. ii. 848. Eider or Cuthbert Duck, 

 Will, Penn., Lath., &c. Eider, Cuthbert Duck, Dunter 

 Goose, Provincial English Names. 



The opinion of so accurate and experienced an 

 observer as Mr. Selby, that he has no doubt this beau- 

 tiful species may be domesticated^ is sufficiently sanc- 

 tioned by the reasons he assigns ; and this at once gives 

 it a place in our present enumeration of the tameable 

 Anatida. Colonel Montagu, indeed, remarks, that he 

 " has known the young taken from the Fern Islands, in 

 hopes of domesticating them ; but all attempts proved 

 ineffectual, probably for • want of proper food : " but 

 Mr. Selby, on the other hand, distinctly says, — " I have 

 twice succeeded in rearing these birds from the egg, 

 and preserving them alive till upwards of twelve months; 

 but, as I had no appropriate place for them at the time, 

 they fell victims to accident alone, being trodden upon 

 by horses or cattle. Indeed," adds our author, '^'^ their 

 sluggish nature, or rather their inactivity upon land, 

 renders their escape from any sudden danger a matter 

 of great difficulty. I know, also, other instances in 

 which they have been reared from the egg to maturity."* 

 Encouraged by such authority, we strongly recommend 

 the attempt to the Ornithological Society. Through the 

 assistance of such of its members as reside on the coast 

 of Northumberland, where these birds are known to 

 breed, a few of the eggs might be procured at the 

 proper season, transmitted to London, and batched under 

 a domestic duck : the young birds, thus initiated by its 



* III. of Brit. Orn. ii. 311. 



