EIDER. 
SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA. 
Tiiough no records exist as to the breeding-range of the Eider having at any time extended far south of the 
Pern Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, scattered parties of these birds may occasionally be met with 
in autumn and winter off all parts of our southern and eastern shores. At this season they are shy, and, 
usually rising at long distances, the identity of the flock is seldom ascertained. I refer to this fact as Eiders 
have repeatedly come under my notice off the Norfolk, Suffolk, and Sussex coasts, though but few instances of 
the occurrence of the species in these quarters have been reported. 
The numerous breeding-haunts of the Eider round our northern coasts have been so often referred to that 
it is superfluous to give a list of those I visited. Though the stations on the islands in the Firth of Forth are 
enumerated, the sandy links of GuUane appear to have escaped the notice of writers. I discovered but one nest 
on that lonely stretch of ground, though at daybreak and late in the evening the drakes might be watched 
flying over the sand-hills ; and this fact was considered a sure sign by the natives (all noted egg-stealers) that 
the females were sitting near at hand. On making inquiries when staying at Canty Bay a few years hack, I 
learned that the links had been entirely deserted and that but few young birds were now reared on the rocky islands 
off the coast. The Bass is mentioned by certain authors as a breeding-station ; the constant stream of sightseers 
has, however, driven the Eider from this part of the Firth, and on only one occasion during the last twenty 
years have eggs been laid on the rock, the site then chosen being among the ruins below the fortifications on the 
south face. The ledge to which the bird resorted (encumbered with large blocks of fallen masonry, and 
luxuriant in summer with the attractive foliage of the sea-beet and Bass mallow *) was at a considerable 
height above the water, with a sheer descent of not less than fifty feet ; under such circumstances it was evident 
that the young would need assistance from their parents to reach their natural element. Though juveniles 
that had only lately emerged from the shell have been repeatedly met with, in no instance was I enabled 
to wateh the female in the act of conveying her offspring from the nest to the water. On Fidra, a rocky island 
a few miles further up the Firth, I examined, in the summer of 1867, a nest containing four eggs that 
was placed on a shelf of the cliff at an elevation of forty or fifty feet above high-water mark, from which 
the young must have experienced some difficulty in making their escape. Within a distance of twenty 
yards a couple of nests had been constructed, under the shelter of a huge block of stone, in such close proximity 
that the down round their edges was intermixed. 
On the Fern Islands, where I also inspected the breeding-haunts of these fine birds, they may be termed 
partially domesticated. The females appear to select the neighbourhood of the store-houses and other 
buildings as a protection from the attacks of the Lesser Black-hacked Gulls ; these robbers, whose quarters are 
near at hand, evince a decided partiality for the eggs of the Eider, and should an opportunity occur they 
• These plants are probably Beta maritima and Lavatera arborea (sea tree-mallow). The fishermen from Canty Bay who act as guides usually 
inform inquisitive and credulous strangers that the latter flourishes only on the rock, bestowing upon it the name of Bass mallow 
