484 THE EIDER DUCK. 



males, variously spotted and piebald — it taking four years 

 for them to reach mature colors — are meanwhile finding 

 seclusion with the sterile females. I recently found quite a 

 number of these Ducks breeding about Mud and Seal 

 Islands, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, and am told that 

 a few still breed about Grand Menan. 



Early in July the first young appear, and by the 20th 

 they are about all hatched. Heavily clad in a dark mouse- 

 colored down, they are the objects of the closest vigilance 

 and care on the part of the mother. If the nest be far 

 from water, they are at once conducted thither through 

 every difficulty; if it be about rocks over the water, the 

 mother will transfer them in her bill, after the manner 

 of the Wood Duck. For the next three weeks or more, 

 the Eider is the most faithful of mothers, leading her 

 brood, in close flocks, about shallow waters, where they are 

 taught to dive for their food. If they become fatigued, 

 she swims deeply among them, and takes them all on her 

 back till they are rested. If a Jaeger or the large Black- 

 backed Gull appear in search of a tender meal, croaking 

 fiercely and beating the water with her wings, she will raise 

 a lively spray, the young meanwhile disappearing under 

 water; or she springs out of the water, and attacks the enemy 

 "tooth and nail " so fiercely, that he is glad to make good 

 his retreat. Now see her mount that rock, and coax her 

 scattered brood together around her, as they emerge from 

 the water here and there along the shore ! 



The males, free from domestic cares, moult several weeks 

 before the females, and also leave their summer habitat 

 some two weeks in advance of the females and young, but 

 are happy to mingle with them again after all have reached 

 our coast to spend the winter. Here, toward spring, the 

 males have a queer note, sounding like moo-inoo-o-o-o-o; and 



