King-Eider 37 
breeds on N.E. coast (enormous colony also discovered by Kolthoff in Mackenzie Gulf, N.E. 
Greenland). A. L. V. Manniche, Terrestrial Mammals and Birds of N.E. Greenland, 
p. 103. Cf. also Zool, 1891, p. 245 ; Grinnell Land, up to 82° 27' N. (Colonel H. W. Feilden, 
cf. Ibis, 1877, p. 412 ; and H. C. Hart, Zool, 1880, p. 213.) Breeding at Winter Cove, Prince 
Albert's Land, Zool, 1879, p. 9. Breeding in N.E. Labrador, Hantzsch, /. / O., 1908, 
p. 345 ; but only in small numbers, in company with Common Eiders. Other Canadian 
localities mentioned by Macoun in Cat. Canadian Birds, 2nd ed., p. iii, are west shores 
of Davis Straits and abundantly on Parry Islands (Arct. Man.) ; nest found near Mingan, on 
Labrador coast (Packard) ; frequent Ellesmere Island, but no nests found (E. Bay) ; common 
north part of Hudson Bay (A. P. Low). Breeds Wales Sound, Hudson Strait (Payne). 
Herschell Island : eggs taken by Rev. C. E. Whittaker ; over 200 eggs collected by 
Macfarlane in Franklin Bay, 1862-65. Sabine says it breeds on the N. Georgian Isles. 
Alaska. — J. Murdoch, ZooL, 87, p. 108 ; breeds sparingly at St. Michael's (L. M. Turner, 
p. 137). Cf. also review in Ibis, 86, p. 196, of Murdoch's Report (few stay to breed on 
Point Barrow, thousands passing on northwards). Cf. also E. W. Nelson, Report, p. 79. 
Migration Range. 
British Isles. — A rare straggler and most frequently occurring in the Orkneys and 
Shetlands. 
England. — Three have been obtained in Norfolk, one in Yorks, and two (and others 
seen) near the Fames (Hand-list of Brit. Birds, p. 144). 
Scotland. — Examples have been killed on the coast of Haddington, Firth of Forth, and 
Fife. Mr. Robert Walker, an excellent field-naturalist, identified six in St. Andrews Bay in 
March 1872 (Scottish Nat., April 1873) ; three were killed on the Tay estuary in 1872 (ibid.). 
With regard to the specimens said to have been killed on the Tay estuary in 1879-80, 1 confess 
I am unable to accept these records, knowing the source from which they come. Two males 
were shot at Tents Muir, in Fife, in 1872 and 1899 respectively. One of these is in the 
Edinburgh Museum and the latter is mentioned in Vhq Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist. A good many 
examples have been killed in the Orkneys, the first a bird exhibited by Gould at a meeting of 
the Zoological Society in November 1832 ; and the latest in February 1906 ; another, a female, 
was shot by my old friend E. Hargitt in May 1868. I possess a young male killed by the 
lighthouse-keeper in Graemsay Island in October 1882. The bird was stuffed by S. Begg, a 
stone-mason who lived in Stromness, from whom I purchased it. In March 1883 I saw a 
young male King-Eider near the Churchyard Rocks, Stromness, and should, I think, have 
killed it had not a Shag risen close by and put the bird up (see The Wildfowler in Scotland, 
p. 138). An adult female was killed off the island of Graemsay, Orkneys, by J. Sutherland, 
on February 21, 1906, and is in the possession of Mr. H. W. Robinson (Field, March 17, 
1906). A few have also been killed in the Shetlands, the latest obtained February 1899 
and June 29, 19 10. I possess a fine old male killed by John Gatherer, a tax-collector, who 
spent all his spare time in hunting northern birds. He saw a party of King-Eiders in 
Quendale Bay in March 1882, and on April i succeeded in shooting a male and a female. 
I purchased the male from him in 1886, and could not ascertain what came of the female; 
but it passed into some English museum. A specimen is recorded from the Fair Isle 
(1910), and the species said to have been seen off Jura and Islay (Hand-list of British 
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