THE EIDER DUCK. 
115 
distinguishable ; the form and size of the bill alone determining to 
which species an individual belongs. As T required positive in- 
formation respecting the bird, the attention of Mr. ¥m. Andrews, 
the present secretary of that society, was called to it. This gentle- 
man kindly examined the specimen, and favoured me with drawings 
of the bill, which proved it to be the common eider. This 
and the individual noticed immediately before it, are the only 
birds obtained in Ireland that can positively be announced here 
as the Somateria mollissima . 
The most southern breeding-haunt of this species, on the 
British coast, is the Tarn Islands, off Northumberland, which are 
in latitude a little to the north of the extreme northern point of 
Ireland. Southward of this, in the British and European seas, 
the eider duck seems to be only of occasional occurrence. It 
breeds on various islands, &c.,both on the eastern and western sides 
of Scotland, as well as on some of those off its northern coast. 
The late Mr. G. Matthews, on return from his sporting tour in 
Norway, supplied me with the following note:— “Eider ducks 
were observed on all parts of the coast from Trondjeim to the 
Alten Eiord, and, I believe, are quite as numerous southwards. 
The ducks are very tame ; the drakes very wild. We seldom 
shot any of these birds, as they are valuable, and preserved on 
account of their down. This is not of any use taken from the 
duck after death, but is obtained from the nests after the brood 
is hatched, the parent birds having plucked it from their breasts 
to line them with. At Nerse Sound, Bergsfiord, Tromsoe, and 
Volkvar, we saw great numbers, especially at the last place. 
They appeared at all seasons of the year.” The eider is one of 
the northern birds of America as well as of Europe, 
