114 ANATID^. 



THE EIDER DUCK. 



Somateria mollissima, Linn, (sp.) 

 Anas ,y „ 



Is an extremely rare visitant. 



In 1834, I was informed by Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver, Dublin, 

 that he had set up, for Sir Richard Levuige, Bart., a specimen 

 which was shot at Wexford. In 1838, he mentioned that since 

 the former period he had been sent two or three fresh birds, but 

 where they were killed was unknown to him. Dr. C. Earran 

 kindly wrote to me on the 23rd of May, 1840, that he had just 

 received from Mr. John King, of Bremore, Balbriggan (county 

 Dublin), a fine male eider alive. Its captor, attracted by the size 

 and unusual plumage of the bii-d, when struggling to get up 

 some rocks, launched a boat and secured it. On examination, it 

 was found to have received a severe injury in one of the thighs. 

 This individual was noljiped by me in the ' Annals of Natural His- 

 tory^ (vol. V. p. 365), as the first obtained in Ireland, of which I 

 had certain and full information. In January 1842, the Rev. 

 H. H. Dombrain announced, at a meeting of the Dublin Natural 

 History Society, that he had just received two fresh specimens of 

 the king eider, from the coast of Mayo, one of which he would 

 present to the Society,'^ This bird was a female, and in that state 

 of plumage in which the king and the common eider are scarcely 



liacl flown away from the Zoological Gai'den, Plioenix Park, Dublin. Two very fine 

 adult males, which had been shot on the river Blackwater, near Youghal, about the 

 month of December 1849, came under the notice of Dr. Harvey. There are many 

 fine demesnes on the bauks of this noble river. About Belfast too — where they were 

 kept on ponds — one or two are said to have been killed. 



The summer duck is noticed as having been shot in England, in the ' Zoologist ' 

 (vol. vii. pp. 2353, 2382, and 2421). 



Wilson informs us that this " most beautiful of all our ducks * * * jg 

 familiarly known in every quarter of the United States, from Florida to Lake Ontario, 

 * * * and is equally well known in Mexico and the West India Islands. During 

 the whole of om- winters they are occasionally seen in the States, south of the 

 Potowmac. * * * lu i\^ more northern districts, however, they are migra- 

 tory." — ' Amer. Omit.,' vol. iii. p. 120. Jardine's edit. 



* Report Dublin Nat. Hist. Society, 1841-42, p. 1. 



