114 
ANATIDiE. 
THE EIDER DUCK. 
Somateria mollissima , Linn, (sp.) 
Is an extremely rare visitant. 
In 1834, I was informed by Mr. Glennon, bird-preserver, Dublin, 
that he had set np, for Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., a specimen 
which was shot at Wexford. In 1838, he mentioned that since 
the former period he had been sent two or three fresh birds, but 
where they were killed was unknown to him. Dr. C. Earran 
kindly wrote to me on the 23rd of May, 1840, that he had just 
received from Mr. John King, of Bremore, Balbriggan (county 
Dublin), a fine male eider alive. Its captor, attracted by the size 
and unusual plumage of the bird, when struggling to get up 
some rocks, launched a boat and secured it. On examination, it 
was found to have received a severe injury in one of the thighs. 
This individual was noticed by me in the f Annals of Natural His- 
tory' (vol. v. p. 365), as the first obtained in Ireland, of which I 
had certain and full information. In January 1842, the Rev. 
H. H. Dombrain announced, at a meeting of the Dublin Natural 
History Society, that he had just received two fresh specimens of 
the king eider, from the coast of Mayo, one of which he would 
present to the Society.* This bird was a female, and in that state 
of plumage in which the king and the common eider are scarcely 
had flown away from the Zoological Garden, Phoenix Park, Dublin. Two very fine 
adult males, which had been shot on the river Blackwater, near Youghal, about the 
month of December 1849, came under the notice of Dr. Harvey. There are many 
fine demesnes on the banks of this noble river. About Belfast too — where they were 
kept on ponds — one or two are said to have been killed. 
The summer duck is noticed as having been shot in England, in the ‘ Zoologist ’ 
(vol. vii. pp. 2858, 2382, and 2421). 
Wilson informs us that this “ most beautiful of all our ducks * * * is 
familiarly known in every quarter of the United States, from Elorida to Lake Ontario, 
* * * and is equally well known in Mexico and the West India Islands. During 
the whole of our winters they are occasionally seen in the States, south of the 
Potowmac. * * * In the more northern districts, however, they are migra- 
tory.”—' Amer. Omit.,’ vol. iii. p. 120. Jardine’s edit. 
* Report Dublin Nat. Hist. Society, 1841-42, p. 1. 
