Islands in May, soon ufler which the females begin to prepare their nests, and usually commence laying
about the twentieth o f that month. As soon as this takes place and incubation commences, the inales-
leave the females and again spread themselves along the shore in companies o f four dr Sve together.”
Brunnicb, who wrote an express treatise on the Eider Duck, informs us that their first object after pairing
is to procure a suitable place for their nest, preferring the shelter o f a juniper bush, where it can he had;
where there is no juniper, they content themselves with tufts o f sea-grass, bundles o f sea-weed cast up by
the tide, the crevices of rocks, or any hollow place they can find. Some of the Iceland proprietors of
breeding-grounds, in order to accommodate them, cut out holes in rows on the smooth sloping banks where
they would not otherwise build, but gladly take possession o f them when scooped out to hand. It is not a
a little remarkable that, like several other sea-birds, they almost always select small islands, their nests being
seldom, if ever, found on the shores of the mainland or even on a large island. The Icelanders are so well
aware o f this that they have expended a great deal o f labour in actually forming islands, by separating from
the mam island certain promontories joined to it by narrow isthmuses. The reason o f this preference for
islands seems to be security from the intrusion o f dogs, cattle, and other land animals, to whose vicinity
they have so great an aversion that the Icelanders are careful to remove these as well as eats from their
settlement.
" Both sexes workK concert in building their nest, laying a rather coarse foundation o f drift grass, dry
tangle, and sea-weed. Upon this rough mattress the female spreads a bed o f the finest down plucked from
her own breast and by no means sparingly, but heaping it up so as to form a thick roll quite round the nest.
When she is necessitated to go in quest of food after beginning to sit, she carefully turns this roll of down
over the eggs to keep them warm till her return. It is worthy o f remark that though the Eider Duck lays
on y ve or six eggs, it is not uncommon to find ten or more in the same nest, occupied by two females who
mrtogether in perfect concord. The quantity of down in each nest is said by Von Troil to be about
half a pound, which by cleaning, is reduced by one-half. Its extraordinary elasticity appears from the fact
that three quarters uf an ounce will fill a large hat; and Pontoppidan says that two or three pounds of
It, tliough pressed into a ball which may be held in the hand, upon being allowed to expand, will fill
t le catering o f a large bed. It is worthy o f notice, however, that it is only the down taken from the
nest, which has this great elasticity; for what is taken from the dead birds is said to be far from as light
as thW the femak plucks to form a bed for its young. It is on this account that it is prohibited b, the laws
of Norway to kill the Eiders for their down.”— Rennies edit, o f Montagu's O n . Diet.
"The food o f the Eider,” says Macgillivray, “ consists o f bivalve mollusca, which it obtains by diving
as well as o f Crustacea, fishes, and the roe o f both. I am not aware of its ever feeding upon vegetable!
in its natural state; and yet when domesticated it has been found readily to eat grain. This remarkable
facility o f transition from an animal to a vegetable food appears to be very common in this family of
l ds, pudI ,s said to produce a corresponding change in their flesh as an article o f food. That o f the
Elder, under its common regimen, is, I think, fully as palatable as the flesh o f the Mallard. The flight
this bird ,s direct, steady, and moderately rapid, being performed by continuous quick beats o f the wings
B W W W M f l i 1 SW!mS Well> S!“ !ng B a,though froni ,he H f ° f ¡‘a body it seem!
nk considerably, and on diving is capable o f remaining a considerable time under water.”
agree with Audubon in believing that if this bird were domesticated it would prove a valuable ■ H H I■ f-athere a"d d°"'n and i,S I 35 I I °f bp matter of difficulty ,s certain, since the thirteenth Earl o f Derby and Mrf. oSoedlbi y“ bodt hB suc 'cheiesd wedo ulidn
rcartng young birds from the egg, which lived for more than a year; and two males and a female are a^this
moment (April 1 8 /0 ) living in the Gardens o f the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park which have
from H U ■ S"rPr,s,nS when consider how different must be the garden enclosures
accommo/dat t0esm i,t'Vs eMlf to Bthe situatiSo“nP Ii>nl iw °hfi cmh airt inmea ya nbiem pallasc e'dh.ere obta“ ed i ¡' shows how readily the bird
verbid f COmpanyi,“g PIate ■ filmish a bettcr idea o fth e « r e n c e s in the colouring o f the sexes than anv
so h H H T Ver mmate' As is the ■ With thc flenerality o f the Ducks, the male is not alwavl
beautifully adorned as there represented; for not only do the feathers o f the head give place after th
pairing-season to others o f a different hue, but by the time the female has hatched her e fg s Z
also occurs m the plumage o f the body, and during the months o f autumn the two sexes a r f very much alike
Worthing0 forTh ”l ' I a“ °“nt ° f the Eider without recording my obligations to C. Monfort, Esq o f
Worthing for the loan o f the very fine examples killed by him in the Orkneys.
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