30 
British Diving Ducks 
shot by Mr. Laidlaw on the island of Auskerry, Orkneys, early in 1912. Mr. Eagle Clarke 
and Dr. C. B. Ticehurst believe they saw a similar specimen on the Pentland Skerries in 
May 1912. 
Naumann, in his admirable work on European birds, considered that it was impossible 
to keep this bird in confinement, owing to the fact, as he thought, that it could not live 
without a constant supply of fresh mussels and Conchylia, and the presence of sea-water. 
But his theory is disproved by certain skilful aviculturists, and the fact that the bird 
occasionally breeds in a wild state on fresh-water lakes seems to show that the Eider has no 
definite objection to fresh water, provided certain foods of compensating character are 
supplied. I think it was the late Mr. E. T. Booth who first kept this species in con- 
finement in our islands, and acclimatised them to various conditions of life so successfully 
that they bred. 
Later, Mr. F. E. Blaauw was equally successful, and has described the methods he 
took to ensure success in the following paper, Ueber die Zttcht unci Entwickelung der 
Eiderente, &c. (On the Breeding and Development of the Eider-Duck, &c.), which he kindly 
sends to me : 
" In December of the year 1890 I received a living specimen of the Eider-Duck, which had been 
caught in a fish-net north of Groningen. 
" It was a bird of the preceding spring and a male. Contrary to my expectation, the duck soon became 
tame, and grew accustomed to being fed on cut-up fish, meat, white bread, buck wheat, and spinage. 
The bird, which was rather weak, soon recovered completely, and in the spring grew a partially complete 
full plumage ; while, at the same period, it began to make its cry heard, this being accompanied by the 
head and neck being craned backwards and forwards. 
" In the following July, the bird moulted and assumed the familiar blackish summer plumage. 
"Towards the end of August, the bird finally began to get its full plumage, this time completely, 
except that the crooked white wing-feathers still had black points. Since then it has got its full plumage 
every autumn, always with the same completeness, with pinkish breast and green neck feathers of 
wonderful beauty. (This is about to take place for the eleventh time.) Three years ago I procured a 
female of the same species, which was greeted with great joy by the old male bird. It had been imported 
from Norway. In the spring of the year 1900, I noticed during the month of May that both birds, which 
were usually fairly quiet, became more and more excited, and flew backwards and forwards against the 
grating which enclosed the duck-pond. It was not difficult to account for this behaviour : they wanted 
an opportunity of nesting. 
" I placed a round, covered basket, provided with one entrance and with some hay and rushes in it, in 
what seemed to me a suitable spot, and soon nodced the Eider-Duck enter it. In the early days of June, 
I found that she was sitting steadily on a sitting of three blue eggs, which were embedded in an abundance 
of down. The bird sat very faithfully and was not once seen on the water during the period of hatch- 
ing, so that she must have been there in the early morning. 
" On the I St of July, I noticed that there were young in the nest, and, after more careful examination, 
it became evident that all three eggs had hatched out. As I was afraid lest rooks might rob the delicate 
young, I removed the nest with mother and young to an enclosure, roofed in with wire netting, where 
there was a small pool in addition to a little plot of grass." 
Mr. Blaauw then proceeds to describe the upgrowth and subsequent plumages of the 
young Eider until maturity, all of which agree with the conclusions I have already 
expressed. Subsequently also, in a letter to me (September 6, 1900), Mr. Blaauw agreed 
that the male Eider did not obtain its complete plumage until the autumn of the third year 
— that is, at 2\ years old. 
