98 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in former years. The nests are placed on the ground, generally 

 close to salt water and almost always on islands; we have found 

 them, however, a hundred yards or more from the water. The 

 nesting site may be open to the sky in a depression among the rocks 

 of a barren island, but it is often partially or wholly concealed 

 among and under spruce, alder, and laurel bushes or in the grass 

 and rushes. 



Mr. Harrison F. Lewis (1922) refers to a nest which he found in 

 an unusual situation, as follows: 



On June 24 I found an eider's nest with six eggs on a busli-covered rock 

 in tlie midst of the second falls of the Kegashka River, more than a mile 

 from the sea. In an expansion of the river near by I saw seven female 

 eiders swimming about. Itesidents of the vicinity informed me that consider- 

 able numbers of young eiders descended this river each autumn. It would 

 be interesting to know just how and at what age the young eiders from the 

 nest which I found left their birthplace, situated as it was in the midst of a 

 foaming cataract. 



The nest itself is made of seaweeds, mosses, sticks, and grasses 

 matted together, but is chiefly distinguished for the famous eider 

 down which is plucked by the mother from her breast. The down 

 is of a dull gray color, very soft, light, and warm, and is supplied 

 in such liberal amounts that the eggs can be entirely covered when 

 the sitting bird is absent. If the departure of the mother is sudden 

 and forced, the eggs are left exposed. The female can supply 

 plenty of down for two sets if the first is stolen, but the story that 

 the male is called upon to supply down for the third set is not true, 

 for he does not go near the nest. The down is rarely clean, as it 

 generally contains bits of moss, twigs, and grasses. If the nests are 

 repeatedly robbed of their down the poor bird is obliged to use 

 other material in its place, and some of the nests under these 

 circumstances at the end of the season are practically destitute of 

 down. 



Eggs. — Under normal circumstances only one set of eggs is laid. 

 Five eggs constitute a setting which, however, varies from 4 to 6 

 and in one instance, that came under our observation, to 7 eggs. 



The eggs are nearly oval in shape, of a rough and lusterless ex- 

 terior, as if the lime had been put on with a coarse brush. Their 

 color is a pale olive green with patches and splashes of dull white. 

 Sometimes their -color is pale brownish or olive. The measurements 

 of 59 eggs in various collections average 78 by 50.7 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 83.5 by 54.8, 65 by 44.5, 

 and 66,4 by 41.5 millimeters. 



[Author's note. — As the eggs, young, and plumage changes of 

 the common eider are exactly like those of the northern eider, no 

 further attempt will be made to describe them here, and the reader 



