160 Order VIII 



nest of rough herbage and sea-weed, lined with a 

 quantity of the well-known down, is placed in coarse 

 grass, nettles, ot heather pretty close to the sea, or even 

 in the adjacent woods, and contains half a dozen or 

 more large greyish green eggs, often with oily patches 

 of a darker colour. The male is a splendid black and 

 ^hite bird with green nape and neck-patches, a bufE 

 breast, and curly white secondaries. The female is 

 plain brown and buff. The Eider Duck is protected 

 on account of its down ia Norway, Iceland, and the 

 Fseroes, and elsewhere has an Arctic distribution ia 

 Europe, western Asia, and eastern America. 



The Common Scoter {(Edemia nigra), a black bird 

 with an orange ridge on the upper mandible, which 

 has a knob at the base, is extraordinarily plentiful 

 round our coasts from autumn to spring, though 

 gunners have to seek it on the open sea or in wide 

 estuaries. From Iceland it ranges to the Taimyr 

 Peninsula in Asia, by way of north Scandinavia and 

 Russia, while it breeds in some numbers in the far 

 north of the Scottish mainland, and is known to do 

 so in the island of Tiree and north Ireland. It utters 

 harsh reiterated notes, flies at a moderate pace, and 

 feeds chiefly on moUusks. The nest is among grass 

 or heather near fresh water, usually some miles inland ; 

 the creamy white eggs are in number from six upwards. 

 The female is brown, with whitish chin and no knob 

 or orange colour on the bill. 



The Velvet Scoter ((E. fusca) is not uncommonly 

 met with among the Common Scoters round Britain.; 

 abroad it breeds on the lakes of Scandinavia, north — 

 or even south — Russia, and extends to the Yenisei in 

 Asia, -but it has not been proved to nest in north 



