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Degland and Gerbe write as follows : — " Occasionally seen in France during migration. A 

 fine male in breeding-plumage was procured with others near Boulogne-sur-Mer, on the 3rd January 

 1831." Roux has included it in the Birds of Provence ; but no mention is made of the species in 

 the more recent work of Messrs. Jaubert and Barthelemy Lapommeraye. Bailly says that young 

 males of the year occur on Swiss waters in the late winter when the weather is very severe. 



Mr. Robert Collett has sent us the following account of the habits of the present bird : — 



" The males in their summer plumage are never seen about the coast-islands after the 

 middle of June. So soon as the females have hatched their young, the old males get tired of 

 family life, collect together in small flocks, and then these selfish old Benedicts clear off to sea, 

 where they spend a jolly batchelor life until late in the autumn, when they return to the land 

 and rejoin the now full-grown young. They then frequent the very outside of the coast, where 

 they keep on the water floating like the lightest foam. 



" Their call is loud, and sounds like a long-drawn 6 u 6. When they fly up they generally 

 describe a half circle against the wind ; therefore when pursuing them in a boat it is always well 

 to sail down wind. In the west and southern parts of our country they generally lay in the first 

 week in June. The number of eggs is usually five, sometimes six, seven, and even as many as 

 eight in some cases. The nest is generally placed under a juniper bush or a stone, and is usually 

 amongst heather. It is merely a depression in the ground, which is filled with down, this being 

 mixed up with small twigs, pieces of heather, &c, which cling close together, so that the entire 

 nest can be lifted out. The down is nearly black, the shafts being somewhat lighter in colour. 



" Sometimes two or three females will lay in the same nest; and in 1870 a nest was found 

 on Renoen, an island outside Vardo, containing fourteen eggs. This island is preserved by the 

 owner, so that this could not have been done by any person. It is well known that the females 

 are so tame when incubating that one may stroke them, and they will not leave the nest. 



" They often place their nests in close proximity to the fishermen's houses ; and in Nordland 

 they are often under the steps going up to the houses, or under the open passages to the rooms. 

 When the bird flies off it almost always casts over the eggs its yellowish white excrement, and 

 when it leaves the nest of its own accord to procure food it generally covers the eggs with clown 

 so that they cannot be seen. The worst enemies of the Eider (man excepting) are the Raven 

 (Corvus corax) and Hooded Crow (C, comix), particularly the latter. The Hooded Crow will 

 sit on a stone or fence watching places where Eiders and other harmless Ducks and Waders are 

 sitting ; and no sooner do they leave their nests for a moment than down he pounces and breaks an 

 egg with his powerful beak. So far as my experience goes, the Hooded Crow is by far the most 

 destructive bird we have on our coasts. The Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) also 

 pursues the newly hatched young, and, after tiring them out, pounces on them and carries them 

 off to some stone or suitable place and devours them. I know of an incident that occurred in 

 July 1867, in Nordland, when a Raven (Corvus corax) struck down a sitting Eider Duck, and, 

 fixing his powerful claws in her neck, tried to drag her off the nest. In this he would have 

 succeeded ; but the Eider Drake arrived home and attacked the Raven, whereupon a fight ensued 

 between these two, which ended in both rolling, fast in each other's clutches, down the hill into 

 the lake, where, however, the Raven got loose and flew off." 



