448 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



sedentary as the Common Eider, and does not wander far beyond 

 the limits of open water during winter. Most of those that do 

 straggle south at that season are immature birds. It is just as 

 gregarious, perhaps more so, inasmuch as Ross often met with 

 large flocks of adult males and others of adult females with their 

 young in the open Atlantic. In its food, note, and mode of 

 progression in the air and the water it does not differ in any 

 important respect from the Common Eider. I had the good 

 fortune to meet with the King Eider during my prolonged visit 

 to St. Kilda in the summer of 1884, and made the following 

 note respecting its habits, which I transcribe verbatim from my 

 paper on the birds of these islands contributed to the Ibis : 

 " Ornithologists will read with pleasure that the King Eider fre- 

 quents St. Kilda. I first became aware of this interesting fact when 

 trying to stalk the Common Eiders in the bay. For two hours I 

 lay concealed behind a huge boulder, watching the little party of 

 Ducks that were swimming just outside the breakers. Two of 

 the pairs were King Eiders. In spite of all my efforts, both on 

 this and subsequent occasions, I failed to secure an example. 

 They were not more than seventy yards away from me several 

 times, so that I had every opportunity of observing them ; and on 

 more than one occasion I carefully scanned them through a 

 powerful glass. They mingled freely with the Common Eiders, 

 and did not differ in any perceptible degree in their habits. It was 

 a pretty sight to watch these rare and charming birds sporting in 

 the heaving waves, the males and females swimming side by side. 

 As the mighty rollers broke upon the shore the birds dived 

 through the bright green wave just before it turned over. They 

 were busy feeding on the small animals which were disturbed by 

 the breaking waves. They floated light as corks on the heaving 

 sea, now high up exposed to view, then deep down in the trough 

 of the waves. As soon as they caught a glimpse of me they quickly 

 swam further from shore. Every day they might be observed in 

 one particular part of the bay; and I have not the slightest 

 doubt that they were nesting on the precipitous island of Doon. 

 Of course the natives did not distinguish them from the Common 

 Eider ; and they take but little interest in them, for they tell me 

 the male Eider is the only bird of St. Kilda that they are unable 



