EIDER-DUCK. 67 



under parts, are black, can hardly be confused with any other 

 species, for the King-Eider has an entirely different bill. 



The brown duck, mottled and barred with black, has little 

 beyond her size and shape that can be called distinctive when 

 she is seen at a distance. The female King-Eider has a longer 

 peak on the bill, but this is not easily seen on a bird tossing on 

 the waves. The sea, and usually a restless sea, is the place 

 where we are most likely to meet with the Eider, for no duck, 

 not even a Scoter, is more maritime ; an Eider inland is excep- 

 tional. Off shore, especially at high tide, fleets of Eiders cruise 

 in any weather ; the birds lift on the waves, ride through the 

 curling crests, and dip into the troughs without raising their 

 sleepy heads from their breasts. Birds in these flocks are often 

 in puzzhng plumage, old white drakes and brown females, and 

 in between young males in various stages of immaturity, 

 mottled, streaked and banded with white, black, and brown. 

 When white foam indicates sunken reefs the birds draw in to 

 feed, diving fearlessly in the rough water for molluscs on the 

 rocks or crustaceans in the weed. They swim close to the 

 exposed rocks, without apparent effort floating back when a 

 wave threatens to dash them on to the reef. As the tide 

 sinks some mount to rest upon the reef, and others, with head 

 and neck below, but not with the body uptilted, investigate 

 the sand in shallow pools. Small molluscs are swallowed 

 whole, but larger ones and crabs are crushed in the powerful 

 bill ; starfish and small cuttles are also eaten. 



On the wing the Eider looks heavy, but its speed is consider- 

 able ; it often flies straight, just above the waves. In flight 

 it has a harsh grating call, but this is less noticed than the 

 low coo, which the drakes utter with head thrown up with a 

 jerk, as if gulping. During courtship this note, frequently 

 repeated, becomes a crooning love-song as, bobbing and jerk- 

 ing, the amorous drakes swim round the duck, unconcernedly 

 swimming, her tail a little elevated, as if bored by their overturci. 



