The favourite nesting places of the Eider Duck are low, rocky islands, well covered with marine vegetation, such as campion, thrift, and grass. Late in spring the flocks begin to separate more into pairs, although the immature non-breeding individuals may be observed to continue gregarious all the summer, and not to visit the nesting stations. The laying season is in May and June. The female alone selects a site for and makes the nest, the male rarely, if ever, visiting the spot, although he keeps in attendance on the sea near the islands, and joins her when she comes to feed. The nest is made upon the ground, sometimes amongst the dense beds of campion, sometimes in a crevice of the boulders, or on a ledge of rock. Occasionally, as I remarked at St. Kilda, it may be placed on the top of cliffs hundreds of feet above the sea. It is large and well made, consisting of coarse grass, dry seaweed, heather, and bits of dead vegetation, profusely lined with down and a few curly feathers from the body of the female alone. This lining gradually accumulates as the eggs are laid. Numbers of nests may be found close together, especially where the birds are tolerably common, as, for instance, at the Farne Islands, where, by the way, the Eider is known as “St. Cuthbert’s Duck.” The eggs are from five to seven, or rarely even eight, pale olive-green or greenish-gray in colour, and smooth and wax-like in texture. In many places the Eider is jealously protected for the sake of its precious down, especially in Iceland and Norway, and the taking of the eggs or down by unauthorized persons is an offence punishable by law. Outside our limits, the Eider inhabits most of the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic. The much rarer King Eider, _Somateria spectabilis_—an occasional visitor to the British Seas—claims a passing reference, for it is by no means improbable that the species actually breeds within our limits. COMMON SCOTER.