438 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILDj FOWL 



are immature birds. It is just as gregarious, perhaps more so, inasmuch as Eoss 

 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 pro- 

 longed 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 frequents 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 farther 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 to snare." 

 I am pleased to be able to record that my opinion respecting the breeding of the 

 King Eider in these islands is shared by others of much wider experience of the 

 ornithology of this district than myself. Mr. John A. Harvie-Brown, the 

 gentleman so frequently alluded to in these pages relative to the habits of some 

 of the least known of the species, says m epistold : "I shall be glad if you 

 succeed in getting undoubted King Eiders. Personally, I believe they breed on 

 the Dun [Doon] every year." 



Nidification.— The King Eider breeds even later than the Common 

 Eider, probably because its summer range nowhere reaches quite so far to the 

 south, and extends more to the north. Its eggs are laid during the first half of 

 July. It appears to arrive at its most northerly breeding stations in flocks 

 towards the end of June. The nests are made on islands as well as on the 



