BIRDS 301 



EIDER DUCK. 



Somateria molisslma (L. ). 



The Eider Duck is entirely unknown in the upper portions of 

 the English Solway ; indeed, the only birds of this species, that 

 have appeared in the English Solway at all, belonged to a party 

 observed on the coast near Maryport by Mr. R. Mann. This 

 was in the month of March 1886, and seven out of thirteen 

 birds were in male plumage. Dr. Stanley obtained an immature 

 Eider Duck in the vicinity of Whitehaven, but that was prior 

 to the year 1829. Dr. Parker writes, that, in June 1880, 'a 

 pair of Eider Ducks were killed by a fisherman on the Raven- 

 glass estuary. I was told that they had got entangled in the 

 fish-garth, and were killed with a stick, and that they were a 

 pair ; but although I was on the spot the next day to secure 

 them, they were already plucked and roasted.' 1 If Lord 

 Muncaster could be induced to introduce a few Eiders, by 

 hatching their eggs or transporting young birds from Colon- 

 say or the ' Long Island,' I fancy that this fine sea duck might 

 easily be naturalised, and would become an additional ornament 

 to the bird colonies which already owe so much to his Lordship's 

 fostering care. The Eider is quite unknown to the Morecambe 

 Bay fishermen, but Mr. Armstrong has an Eider in female dress 

 killed near Barrow about the year 1860. Mr. Batson has never 

 met with the Eider in any of his fowling expeditions to the 

 estuaries of the Duddon and Morecambe Bay; but has often 

 examined a bird in female feather, which was killed some years 

 ago on the coast off Fleetwood. 



COMMON SCOTER. 



(Edemia nigra (L.). 



Dr. Heysham knew the Common Scoter as a bird of our coast- 

 line. T. C. Heysham also met with it, for he says in a letter of 

 1840 : ' So far nothing has turned up here this winter, except a 

 pair of Scoter Ducks, a species however of common occurrence 

 1 Zoologist, 1881, p. 467. 



