RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 147 



at a slight distance apart. At intervals they would 

 pause, stand or sit for a little, and again jog on together. 

 These birds must, I think, have been selecting a place 

 in which to lay their eggs, and if so, it would seem 

 that they like to do this in pairs. I also saw a male 

 eider-duck sitting for a considerable time amidst the 

 heather right away from the sea. It is, of course, 

 impossible to mistake the sexes after the males have 

 assumed their adult plumage, and, moreover, this bird 

 subsequently flew down into the little bay just beneath 

 me. I say this because it is authoritatively stated that 

 the male eider-duck never goes near the nest. It is 

 probable that a week or so later this bird could not 

 have sat where he was without being near to a nest 

 at any rate ; and, moreover, what should take the male 

 bird from the sea, or its immediate coast, at all, if it 

 were not some impulse appropriate to the season ? 

 This and a statement made to me by a native in 

 regard to this point, which went still further against 

 authority, makes me wish that I had been able to see a 

 little more. As it is, I have only a right to ask with 

 regard to this one male eider-duck, " Que diable allait 

 il faire dans cette galere ? " 



It is difficult to tire of watching these birds, ducks, 

 yet so wonderfully marine. The freedom of the sea is 

 upon them, far more than Aphrodite they might have 

 sprung from its foam — it is of the male with his snowy 

 breast that one thinks this. One cannot see them and 

 think of a pond or a river — yet, always, they are so 

 palpably ducks. It is delicious to see them heave 

 with the swell of the wave against some low sloping 

 rock — lapping it like the water itself — and then remain 

 upon it, standing or sitting — living jetsam that the sea 



