COMMON, OR WHITE-BACKED EIDER. 153 



form, smooth and glossy, and of a pale greenish-grey, gene- 

 rally three inches in length, an inch and eleven-twelfths, or 

 two inches in hreadth. When they have been laid, the 

 female plucks the down from her breast, and deposits it 

 among them. I have never found it in a pure state, it being 

 intermixed with fragments of plants, on being freed from 

 which the quantity in a nest may be compressed within a 

 space less than two inches in diameter, although, on being 

 shaken out, it will extend to nine or ten inches. If the eggs 

 are removed the female will usually lay again, in which case 

 the down is so entirely plucked from her lower parts, together 

 with the finer filaments of the feathers themselves, that the 

 breast and abdomen present a very singular appearance, 

 inducing one to think that the bird must be in in a most 

 uncomfortable state. 



Soon after the young are hatched they follow their mother 

 to the water, or in certain cases, as when the nest has been 

 placed on a rock, are carried there successively in her bill. 

 This I have never seen done ; but several writers — none of 

 whom, however, seem to have seen it either — declare it to be 

 true ; and it is certain that Ducks which build in trees must 

 remove their young in that way. The young, at first covered 

 with dusky down, are very expert swimmers and divers ; but 

 their food at this early age has not been determined, although 

 it must consist of small marine animals. They are anxiously 

 tended by the mother, Avho does all in her power to protect 

 them from Gulls and men, by diving with them, fluttering 

 on the water, and leading their pursuers away by pretending 

 to be crippled. 



The food of the Eider consists of bivalve moUusca, which 

 it obtains by diving, as well as of Crustacea, fishes, and the 

 roe of both. I am not aware of its ever feeding on vegetable 

 substances in its natural state, and yet, when domesticated, 

 it has been found readily to eat grain. This remarkable 

 facility of transition from an animal to a vegetable food 

 appears to be very common in this family of birds, and is said 

 to produce a corresponding change in the character of their 

 flesh as an article of food. That of the Eider, under its com- 

 mon regimen, is, I think, fully as palatable as the flesh of 



