THE EIDER DUCK. 115 



distinguishable ; the form and size of the bill alone determining to 

 which species an individual belongs. As I required positive in- 

 formation respecting the bird, the attention of Mr. Wm. Andrews, 

 the present secretary of that society, was called to it. This gentle- 

 man kindly examined the specimen, and favoured me with drawings 

 of the bill, which proved it to be the common eider. This 

 and the individual noticed immediately before it, are the only 

 birds obtained in Ireland that can positively be announced here 

 as the Somateria moUissima. 



The most southern breeding-haunt of this species, on the 

 British coast, is the Farn Islands, off Northumberland, which are 

 in latitude a little to the north of the extreme northern point of 

 Ireland. Southward of this, in the British and European seas, 

 the eider duck seems to be only of occasional occurrence. It 

 breeds on various islands, &c., both on the eastern and western sides 

 of Scotland, as weU as on some of those off its northern coast. 



The late Mr. G. Matthews, on return from his sporting tour in 

 Norway, supplied me with the following note: — "Eider ducks 

 were observed on all parts of the coast from Trondjeim to the 

 Alten Eiord, and, I beheve, are quite as numerous southwards. 

 The ducks are very tame ; the drakes very wild. We seldom 

 shot any of these birds, as they are valuable, and preserved on 

 account of their doM'n. This is not of any use taken from the 

 duck after death, but is obtained from the nests after the brood 

 is hatched, the parent birds having plucked it from their breasts 

 to line them with. At Nerse Sound, Bergsfiord, Tromsoe, and 

 Volkvar, we saw great numbers, especially at the last place. 

 They appeared at all seasons of the year." The eider is one of 

 the northern birds of America as well as of Europe, 



I t 



