LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 93 



far away from their breeding grounds, moving only far enough 

 away to find open water and good feeding grounds. 



Winter.— On the coast of Greenland many northern eiders spend 

 the winter in the open waters of the fjords. Near Ivigtut, Hagerup 

 (1891) observed that: 



In October, 1886, the females began to come into the fjord singly, and in 

 November they came in small flocks. As the weather grew colder the number 

 increased, and it became still larger after Christmas, the period of greatest 

 abundance being March and April. The males did not come in as great 

 numbers into the fjord that winter. I saw, indeed, none at Ivigtut until March, 

 while they were quite numerous at Christmas of the following year. 



In the evening these birds generally go as far inland as there is open 

 water, and during the night they are almost constantly on the move. Then 

 their cries may be plainly heard, as also their splashing near the shore; but 

 if a match be lit, they fly aloft with a great uproar. 



Eiders are at all seasons essentially sea ducks, but especially so 

 in winter. Low temperatures have no terrors for them ; their winter 

 resorts extend from Greenland to the coast of Maine, wherever 

 they can find open water and plenty of food. Even in the roughest 

 winter storms they brave the rigors of the open sea, riding at ease 

 among the white caps, diving for food among the surf-swept 

 ledges, safe from the molestation of the hardiest gunners, and 

 retiring at night to rest on some lonely rock or drifting iceberg. 



Mr. Ekblaw writes: 



A few eiders stay all through the four months winter night in the open 

 waters of Smith Sound. Like the guillemots, the eiders find sufficient food 

 in the upwelling of the tidal currents about the Gary Islands to maintain them- 

 selves throughout the coldest winters. These strong swift tidal currents 

 running back and forth through Smith Sound between Baffin Bay and Kane 

 Basin prevent the formation of widespread ice, and are the controlling factor 

 which permits a luxuriant far-Arctic plant and animal life, including a 

 pleasant homeland for the polar Eskimo, in this habitat a thousand miles 

 within the Arctic Circle, far beyond the usual northern limit of life. 



The far northern coasts of Greenland afford a sanctuary for the eider, 

 where this splendid species of the duck family may save itself from total 

 extermination. To the lonely, inaccessible rocks and islets of these far nor- 

 thern shores, the egg hunters, and down gatherers are not likely to come in 

 numbers enough or often enough to destroy the species. The natives are too 

 few and the value of the eider in their economic needs is too small to con- 

 stitute any serious menace to the species. Farther south, in Greenland, and 

 elsewhere, the eider is threatened with extinction, though in Danish Green- 

 land the Danes are vigilantly safeguarding the birds as far as it lies in 

 their power to do so. It is fortunate that the eiders have their far northern 

 habitats, relatively safe from man's devastation. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Coastal islands of Greenland and northeastern 

 America. South on the Atlantic coast of Labrador to the vicinity of 

 Hamilton Inlet and, in the regions north of Hudson Bay, to Baflin 



