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NOTES ON THE BREEDING-HABITS OF THE 

 COMMON EIDER 



As Observed in the Outer Hebrides. 



By Mary G. S. Best and Maud D. Haviland. 

 (Plate 3.) 



During this summer (1913) we found a good many 

 pairs of Eiders {Somateria m. mollissima) nesting in the 

 northern portion of a certain large fresh- water loch in the 

 Outer Hebrides. The birds were, however, very shy 

 at the nest, and even with a long-focus lens it was 

 impossible to photograph them without a hiding-shelter. 

 In this respect they differed markedly from the Eiders 

 on the Fames and elsewhere, whose tameness in the 

 breeding-season is so well known. 



The accompanying photographs were taken with an 

 eight-inch Zeiss lens, from a hiding-tent set up seven feet 

 from a nest containing five partly-incubated eggs. From 

 what we could learn, five seems to be the maximum 

 clutch in this district. The duck returned to the 

 island on which the nest was situated as soon as Miss 

 Haviland's companions had, left in the boat, but it was 

 nearly one and a half hours before she ventured on to 

 her eggs. The intervening time she spent crouched behind 

 the heather- tuft shown on the left of the photographs. 

 Each time that an exposure was made she started 

 violently, and at the sixth she left the nest again. 



A fortnight later Miss Best visited the same place 

 and found two nests built within a few feet of one 

 another. One contained incubated eggs and a plentiful 

 supply of down, the other had an incomplete clutch, 

 and Miss Best put up her tent by the former. After 

 a time she heard a loud persistent quacking beside the 

 tent, and looking out, saw the drake standing there. 

 Meanwhile the duck, which answered him from the other 

 side of the tent, gradually plucked up courage to approach 

 the nest. First of all she sat upon the incomplete 

 clutch of eggs in the nest furthest from the tent, but 



