328 SWIMMERS. 



Strict watch in the vicinity, giving notice of any danger as soon 

 as it appears. The Ravens, it seems, no less than the Gulls, 

 are the enemies of this valuable bird, often sucking the eggs 

 and killing the young ; the female therefore hastens to convey 

 her brood to the sea, sometimes even carrying them on her 

 back to the element in which they are thenceforth destined to 

 live. The male now also leaves her, and neither of them 

 returns more that season permanently to the land. Several 

 hatches associate together at sea and form flocks of twenty or 

 thirty, attended by the females, who lead them, and are seen 

 continually splashing the water, to raise with the mud and sed- 

 iment, the insects and small shell-fish for such of the young as 

 are too weak to dive for themselves. 



The Eider dives deep after fry, and feeds upon small 

 shell-fish, mussels, and univalves, and sometimes on the sea- 

 urchin (^Echifius) and various kinds of marine insects and sea- 

 weeds, and in summer mostly on the soft mollusca so abund- 

 ant in the Arctic and hyperboreal seas. Its flesh is dark and 

 fishy, though sufficiently tender, and that of the young and the 

 female may be considered good. It is commonly eaten by the 

 Greenlanders, and its skin is esteemed as an excellent inner 

 garment. Prepared with the feathers left on, it also forms an 

 article of commerce with the North, and particularly with the 

 Chinese. Fitted purposely for inhabiting the coldest climates 

 and the sea, the Eider does not long survive in temperate re- 

 gions, and aU attempts to domesticate it have consequently 

 failed. 



In the breeding-season, in Norway, some of the male Eiders 

 are seen roaming about unpaired, either superannuated or un- 

 able to keep possession of the females. Mr. Audubon remarks 

 that the Sea Ducks (Eiders, Surf Duck, Velvet, and Scoter) 

 moult in July, and by the loth of August are so naked of 

 feathers, and even destitute of quills, as to be unable to rise 

 either from the water or the ground. At this juncture, in the 

 Bay of Fundy, the Indians in large companies assemble in 

 their canoes at the entrances of the bays frequented by these 

 birds, and dividing themselves on either side of the headland, 



