Eider-Duck 
Another very successful breeder of Eiders is Mr. W. H. St. Quintin of Scampston Hall, 
Yorks, whose keeper of the birds, Mr. A. F. Moody, has kindly furnished me with the 
following interesting notes that may be of value to any of my readers who wish to keep 
these birds in confinement. He says : 
" The Eider is an interesting and beautiful species, and is one that is rarely seen in confinement. 
For the past twenty-five years, however (since 1886), they have without a break been represented in the 
Scampston collection, and provided sufficient deep water can be allowed them to exercise their diving 
powers and due attention is paid to food and regularity of feeding, &c., they may be classed as moderately 
long-lived and fairly easy to keep (one particular female living eleven years). Like other sea-ducks, 
however, and particularly such as are not thoroughly established, they are not altogether unmindful of 
severe frost, and are occasionally subject to short attacks of cold or indisposition ; the moult also in some 
cases proves a severe trial, and it is not unusual from one of these causes for an Eider to become much 
reduced by refusing food for several days in succession. At these times nothing can be done except to 
frequendy tempt the bird by throwing pieces of food within its reach at intervals during the day, and to 
make provision that plenty of grit is within reach, and that immediately the bird's appetite returns a 
supply of tempting and nourishing food is not lacking. 
" As to diet, Eider-Ducks rarely eat grain, and we do not encourage them to do so, but feed our birds 
almost entirely upon barley meal and pieces of fresh bullock's, sheep's, or rabbit's liver. They like it, 
and have thriven upon this food alone for years ; and it is only comparatively recently since we have 
included Smew, Long-tailed, &c., in the collection, that the Eiders have taken to securing an occasional 
course of fish. We feed our Eiders and other sea-ducks twice per day by throwing food to each bird 
piece by piece from the hand ; the meal is given first, and they are encouraged to dive into deep water 
for it, and although by feeding in this way a certain amount of food is taken or robbed by the fresh-water 
species, the exercise and excitement produced by having to work for their living must undoubtedly be 
beneficial to these denizens of the open sea. As to the species habits, generally in confinement it is rather 
a distinct bird, and as far as I have had opportunities of observing there is no other duck (except wounded 
or hard-pressed birds) that uses its wings to such an extent under water. They are also, for diving ducks, 
good walkers, and spend a considerable portion of their time upon land ; and if by any means their feeding 
time was unduly delayed, it used to be no uncommon sight when we possessed several pairs to see the 
whole drove bodily come waddling to meet one at a distance of 50 yards from the water, and if this broad 
hint was not immediately attended to, the tameness of the drakes was such that they would try to further 
matters by inflicting several determined taps at a person's legs. This excessive familiarity was, to the best 
of my recollections, chiefly noticeable in breeding examples. Regarding breeding, the nesting habits of 
the Eider are so well known, and have been so frequently described in a state of nature, that beyond 
stating the fact that they have repeatedly bred here, little need be said concerning their nidification in 
confinement. One peculiarity, however, which in spite of the bird's tameness would be difficult to observe 
under natural conditions, is that during the whole of the twenty-eight days which the female Eider 
incubates, she never or rarely takes food, and although I have occasionally seen them leave the nest for 
a hurried splash, they are extremely anxious to return to the eggs ; nor will they eat if vessels of 
food be continuously left by the nest side, the consequence being that at the end of this self-imposed and 
prolonged fast the birds are in rather a reduced state and require high feeding to restore them to their 
normal condition. 
" As to rearing, we usually transfer the eggs before hatching to steady hens, and substitute for them 
two or three domestic ducks' eggs similarly incubated, which as a reward and encouragement to breed 
we allow the Eider to hatch and rear. The young Eiders themselves are rather difficult to start, and 
although they partake of the ordinary duckling's fare, and eventually strips of liver, &c., they are for the 
first few weeks largely dependent on earthworms ; once, however, fairly started, they grow rapidly, but 
care has to be taken that they do not remain too long in the direct rays of the hot sun, otherwise we 
found them subject to sunstroke. Re the sexes, the young males in their first feather can usually be 
separated from the females by their voice, their darker and more uniform appearance ; also, I have thought, 
by a whiter edged wing-bar, and although they moult into an incomplete black-and-white plumage the first 
autumn (in one instance I noticed a bird, hatched on June 11, first began to change by assuming a few 
