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There are now a great number of Eiders on the Farnes. I counted thirty-four barren ducks one day all together in a little bay, and seventeen drakes in another. As soon as the females begin to sit the males leave them, and the glories of their breeding plumage commence to fade. Some of the ducks are wonderfully tame whilst brooding, and will allow themselves to be stroked upon the back without appearing in the least disturbed by the attentions of the intruder. The Duck which made her nest for so many years in succession at the foot of St Cuthbert's Tower, and was recognisable by a peculiar white spot on the back of her head, did not put in an appearance this year, and the watchers concluded that she had been shot by some gunner during the winter.
Eider duck on nest
I saw one nest with eight eggs in it, and Darling informed me that he had known birds succeed in hatching off clutches of from two to ten, and had seen, during his long experience, one nest containing fourteen and another nineteen eggs, but in neither case were any ducklings brought off. There can be but little doubt that in these last cases two or more females must have contributed. I found two nests one day within a foot of each other. One of them had seven stale eggs in it covered within sodden down, and the other the remaining shells of a successful hatch off.
Although I have found and examined a goodly number of Eider Ducks' nests, I have never yet met with one which could beat the Wild Duck at lining one, in point of quantity of down employed. The above illustration of a Wild Duck on her nest was obtained close to London, and shows to what a remarkable extent the bird must have denuded her under-parts.
Wild duck on nest
When leaving the nest of her own accord, this down is carefully folded over the eggs, and, whether it is intended to or not, serves the useful twofold purpose of preventing an undue escape of heat and lessening the chances of discovery by a prowling enemy.
Young Eiders are the hardiest little birds in their own element I have ever seen. They will dash into a boiling sea from almost any height a day or two after they have made their advent into the world.
Young eider duck
One rough day we went out to try to photograph the breakers as they tumbled in upon the rocks at the northern end of the Farne. After making one or two studies we walked round the north-west corner of the island, and suddenly came upon an Eider Duck and seven small young ones. We stopped, with the intention of withdrawing, but as the old bird did not seem in the least disconcerted by our presence, we stood still and watched. She walked deliberately to the edge of the cliff, which could not have been less than twenty feet deep, and without the slightest hesitation went over into the sea. To our astonishment her little ducklings followed her into the turmoil of waters one by one in the most unconcerned fashion. In less than a minute she was gallantly breasting the big seas, with her offspring touching her tail and each other so closely that the whole family might easily have been covered by an ordinary pocket-handkerchief.
We were anxious to obtain a photograph of an Eider duckling, but found it quite impossible to get near enough to one for such a purpose.
One day, however, a very strange thing happened. We were photographing the watchers and their boat in a little sandy bay, when the very fowl we wanted walked right up to us with the most uncanny deliberation and fearlessness. Whether St Cuthbert - with whom, I believe, the fowls of the air were on very good terms whilst he lived on the island - sent it, or the bird mistook one of us for him, I cannot tell; but the strange incident filled us all with wonder.
Watcher Patterson told us he once saw an Eider Duck with five small young ones accidentally leave two ashore in a deep crevice in the rock when she took to the sea. A Lesser Black Back happened to be passing at the time, and, seeing his opportunity, stooped and carried off one of the downy little creatures, which he swallowed in mid-air. No sooner had he accomplished this feat than he descended again, and, seizing the other, flew away with it.
Kittiwakes
We visited the far-famed Pinnacles again, and found them crowded as thickly as ever with Guillemots, many of which evidently had young ones, for they were edging their way into the seething noisy mass with sand-eels in their bills. Below them were a number of Kittiwakes, and their downy young ones, all of which were panting and gaping from the oppressive heat.
Young black guillemot
Our pictures of the Guillemots and Kittiwakes were both obtained on the Saltee Islands.
A few land birds occasionally breed upon the islands. Some years back a Linnet made its nest in a small elderberry tree growing in the Farne lighthouse-keeper's garden, and a Blackbird amongst some rhubarb stalks. A member of the last species also made its nest not long ago in a hemlock plant growing on the Wide Opens.
A number of Shelducks breed amongst the sand dunes, between Sea Houses and Bamborough Castle on the mainland, and the fishermen look upon them as the most artful birds in existence. As an instance of a Shelduck's cunning, they assert that when she leaves her nesting burrow she drags her tail upon the ground, so as to obliterate her footprints in the sand, and thus save her nest from discovery and molestation.
Guillemots
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