THE EIDER DUCK. 
39 
Range outside the British Islands. — ^The Eider Duck, on account 
of its usefulness in providing the material for quilts, is, in the 
northern countries of Europe, under the special protection of 
the law, and it is found nesting on the islands off the coast of 
Norway and Denmark, as well as in the Faeroes and Iceland. 
To the northward it occurs in Spitsbergen and Franz Josef 
Land, and extends eastward to the Kara Sea and westward to 
the Coppermine River. In America the Common Eider is 
considered to be represented by a distinct race, which Mr. 
L-idgway distinguishes as S. nwllissima borealis ; it is said by 
him to be an inhabitant of Eastern North America, includ- 
ing Greenland, ranging south to Northern Labrador in sum- 
mer and to the northern border of the United States in 
winter. Count Salvadori, however, cannot detect any material 
difference in the Greenland Eider, as it is called, and I at pre- 
sent agree with him, from a study of the specimens in the 
British Museum. Mr. Ridgway, however, states that North 
American specimens have the bill orange-yellowish in life, 
instead of dull greyish. If this coloration proves to be con- 
stant, Mr. Ridgway will have proved his point, and^ the 
American Eider will have to be separated as S. borealis. 
Hatits.— The Common Eider Duck is practically a resi- 
dent species in the places which it frequents, and occurs 
only accidentally away from them, when driven by stress of 
weather. The females are entrusted with the care of the 
young, the males taking themselves off, and associating in 
large flocks on the sea. 
Mr. Seebohm, who has studied the habits of the species on 
the Fame Islands, writes “ No bird is more maritime in its 
habits than the Eider. It rarely, if ever, leaves the sea, and 
seldom flies over the land, always preferring to follow the 
coast-line rather than cross even a narrow headland. . . . 
It loves to frequent precipitous islands and small uninhabited 
sea-girt rocks, breeding on them, and obtaining its food in the 
surrounding sea. It is more or less gregarious at all times, 
but collects into much larger flocks in winter than in summer. 
Sometimes it is met with at a considerable distance from land, 
and when undergoing its annual change of feathers it usually 
keeps well out at sea, as if fully aware of its helplessness and 
