I70 British Birds with their Nests and Eggs. 



Family— ANA TID^. 



Common Eider Duck. 



Somateria mollissima, LiNN. 



THE breeding range of ttis valuable Duck in Europe extends as far north as 

 Franz Joseph Land, and other Arctic islands; its most southern nesting 

 haunt is the coast of Northumberland and the collection of rocks and small islets, 

 called the Fame islands, which lie a few miles to the eastward ofF that coast, and 

 where it is fairly numerous and in recent years increasing. In this locality it is 

 known as St. Cuthbert's Duck, and I see no reason to doubt that these Fame 

 Island birds are the descendants of those which the Saint, 1,200 years since, tended 

 and loved so well during his solitary life on the islands. When in 1827, under 

 the direction of Canon Raine, the tomb of St. Cuthbert was opened, in Durham 

 Cathedral, the bones in the inner coffin were wrapped in costly robes embroidered 

 with water fowl, which Mr. Raine believed represented the Eider Duck. Let us 

 hope that these historical birds, so intimately connected with the early life of 

 England, will be well cared for and protected in the centviries to come, as they 

 are at the present time. 



The Eider Duck nests in several localities on the coasts and islands of 

 Scotland, being especially numerous on Colonsay, and around Mull and lona, and the 

 Outer Hebrides; also in the Orkneys and the Shetlands, St. Kilda, the Faeroes, 

 Iceland, and on the coasts of Norway; in many of these northern localities it 

 breeds in a semi-domesticated state and protected by very stringent laws. In the 

 autumn of 1896, I saw thousands of Eider and their young dusky broods in the 

 Straits and Sea channels, (the Skjsergaard), between Bergen and the North Cape, 

 and usually in close propinquity to the fishing villages. In Spitsbergen, which 

 lies far beyond any protected area, I was told the Eider Duck has decreased owing 

 to frequent molestation and the shooting of the old birds in the summer months, 

 as well as the persistent plunder of the eggs and down. 



The Common Eider nests plentifully on the coast of Greenland, as far north 

 as Thank-God Harbour, (lat. 81°, 38' N.), where Dr. Coppinger procured both this 

 and the King Eider, in July, 1876. According to Kumlien it breeds abundantly 

 on the western shores of Cumberland Bay. On the north coast of British America 



