212 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this kind is a capital, the income from which is all clear gain, for the 

 bird feeds itself and costs nothing. As soon as the eggs are laid the 

 Northman appears with a great basket, into which he puts nest and 

 eggs. The duck is deeply distressed over this unrighteous seizure of 

 her property, and in her inexpressible agony flies out to sea to seek 

 comfort with her mate. Whether he receives her with tender ex- 

 pressions of sympathy or with scoldings for her neglect of his warn- 

 ings is still an unsolved problem ; but it is certain that he becomes 

 tender again toward her, and after a few weeks waddles back behind 

 her to the same bay where she had been so badly treated. She 

 again gathers straw and grass for the new nest ; but how about its 

 warm lining ? The new down has not grown upon her in so short a 

 time ; what shall she do ? There is no mother, not even a duck, 

 that can not find her way out of a difficulty when the question con- 

 cerns her offspring. Her breast is indeed bare, but her mate still 

 has his full coating of down, and is now obliged to sacrifice it on the 

 altar of affection. He cheerfully adapts himself to the unavoidable, 

 and begins to strip himself. The process does not go on fast enough 

 for the impatient duck, and she heljDS in the work, and both persevere 

 in it till the drake stands out entirely bald. Then he flies away, and 

 troubles himself no more about wife and nest, an indifference for which 

 we need not blame him in view of his own forlorn condition. The duck 

 herself also thinks of only one thing — her brood. She leaves the nest 

 only once a day for a little while in the morning, to take her bath in 

 the sea, plume herself, and get some food ; but while attending to 

 these details she does not forget to cover the eggs carefully with 

 down, so as to keep them warm. Danger no longer threatens the 

 brood from man, who generally takes good care of this hatching to 

 preserve the species ; but it is likely to come from birds of prey. Under 

 these circumstances the practical value of the duck's simple duskily 

 speckled coat is fully demonstrated. The color of its plumage agrees 

 so well with that of the ground that it is very hard to distinguish the 

 bird from its surroundings. It has happened to me more than twenty 

 times to be standing directly over a nest and not remark it till I felt a 

 gentle pecking at the feet, which the bird gave me by way of warning 

 that I was approaching too near ; for the duck hardly ever thinks of 

 flying from man during the time of its brooding. I have frequently 

 bent down over a nest, stroked the bird, and felt the eggs without 

 its rising. The most it would do was to snap, as if in play, at my 

 fingers. 



A characteristic trait of the eider-duck is to have as many eggs as 

 possible, whether they be its own or strange ones ; it is a trait that is 

 not found to exist to so great an extent in any other being. The sit- 

 ting birds steal one from another whenever they have an opportunity. 

 It is no uncommon occurrence, when one of them is away from her nest 

 for a little while, for her neighbor to purloin three or four eggs, carry 



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