420 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



Bay and Labrador,* retiring inland for the purpose ; nesting 

 contiguous to small fresh-water pools in the shelter of 

 Juniper or Pine bushes, laying from 8 to 10 white eggs, 

 which the female closely covers with her elastic feather. 

 The young are attended by the female only, who remains 

 with her brood in these seclusions until they are nearly 

 ready to fly. She also makes a show of defending them, 

 and the young themselves often by their great alertness in 

 diving escape the attacks of their enemies. They are 

 abundant in the Orkneys and Hebrides, as well as in Norway, 

 Sweden, and Lapland ; and are common in some parts of 

 Siberia and Kamtschatka. Near Kengis, on the banks of 

 the Tornea in Lapland, a little beyond the 67th parallel, 

 Skioldebrand remarked them nesting in trees, particu- 

 larly Pines, accompanied by the Golden Eye (Fuligula 

 clangula.) The inhabitants, he also adds, knowing the 

 trouble they have in forming their nests, attach hollowed 

 pieces of wood to the trees for their convenience ; and in 

 recompense receive a quantity of their eggs, which supply 

 the place of those of the common fowl, no longer found to 

 endure the severity of these hyperboreal climates.| 



On the commencement of incubation, the males leave the 

 land and again assemble together in flocks out at sea. In 

 the moulting season, which soon after takes place among 

 these seceding birds, the natives at Ochotska to the number 

 of fifty or more, as already related of the Indians of the 

 Bay of Fundy, taking advantage of the flood tide, drive 

 the whole flock, before them up the river, in canoes, and 

 as soon as the water ebbs, they dispatch them with clubs in 

 such numbers that each individual often comes in for 20 or 

 30 to his share. 



* Audubon, in lit. 



t Skioldebrand's, Picturesque Voyage au Cap Nord. 



