156 SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA. 



sound, the young dive in all directions, while she endeavours 

 to entice the marauder to follow her, by feigning lameness, or 

 she leaps out of the water and attacks her enemy, often so 

 vigorously, that, exhausted and disappointed, he is glad to fly 

 off, on which she alights near the rocks, among which she 

 expects to find her brood, and calls them to her side. Now 

 and then I saw two females which had formed an attachment 

 to each other, as if for the purpose of more effectually contri- 

 buting to the safety of their young, and it Avas very seldom 

 that I saw these prudent mothers assailed by the Gull. 



The yovmg, at the age of one week, are of a dark mouse- 

 colour, thickly covered with soft warm doAvn. Their feet at 

 this period are proportionally very large and strong. By the 

 20th of July they seemed to be all hatched. They grcAv 

 rapidly, and M'hen about a fortnight old were with great diffi- 

 culty obtained, unless during stormy weather, when they 

 at times retired from the sea to shelter themselves under the 

 shelvings of the rocks at the head of shallow bays. It is by no 

 means difficult to rear them, provided proper care can be taken 

 of them, and they soon become quite gentle and attached to 

 the place set apart for them. I have no doubt that if this valu- 

 able bird were domesticated, it would prove a great acquisi- 

 tion, both on account of its feathers and down, and its flesh as 

 an article of food. When in captivity, it feeds on different 

 kinds of grain and moistened oatmeal, and its flesh becomes 

 excellent. Indeed, the sterile females w^hich are procured at 

 Labrador in considerable numbers, tasted as well as the 

 Mallard. The males were tougher and more fishy, so that 

 we rarely ate of them, although the fishermen and settlers 

 paid no regard to sex in this matter. 



When the female Eider is suddenly discovered in her 

 nest, she takes to wing at a single spring ; but if she sees her 

 enemy at some distance, she walks off a few steps, and then 

 flies away. If unseen by a person coming near, as may often 

 happen, when the nest is placed under the boughs of the 

 dwarf fir, she will remain on it, although she may hear people 

 talking. On such occasions my party frequently discovered 

 the nests by raising the pine branches, and were often as 

 much startled as the Ducks themselves could be, as the latter 



