232 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
hatched,” adds the English naturalist, “it takes them out to sea, 
and never looks at land till next breeding-time, nor is seen anywhere 
about our coasts.” . 
There seems to be some considerable difference between the 
down taken from the dead bird and that which the female plucks 
from her breast. ‘The lightness and elasticity of the latter are such 
that two or three pounds of it squeezed into a ball which may be 
held in the hand will expand so as to fill a quilt large enough to 
cover a bed. When the female prepares her nest, she lines it as 
above mentioned ; when she has laid her four or six eggs, which 
are about three inches in length and two in breadth, she strips herself 
a second time; should this down be abstracted, as it generally is, 
and she is unable to supply more, the male submits himself to the 
same plucking process, his contribution being known by its paler 
colour. 
The haunts of a bird yielding so valuable an article are care- 
fully watched, and proprietors do everything in their power to 
attract them to their land. In Scotland and Norway the districts 
resorted to by the Eider Ducks are strictly preserved, everything 
likely to disturb them being carefully guarded against. Pennant 
thus records a visit he paid to one of their breeding-places in the 
Farn Islands on the 15th of July, 1769:—‘“‘I found the ducks 
sitting,” he writes, “and I took some of the nests, the base of 
which was formed of sea-plants and covered with the down. 
After separating it carefully from the plants it weighed only three- 
quarters of an ounce, yet was so elastic that it filled a greater 
space than the crown of the largest hat. These birds are not 
numerous on the isles, and it was observed that the drakes kept on 
the side most remote from the sitting-places. ‘The ducks continue 
on the nest till you come almost to them, and when they rise, they 
are very slow fliers. The eggs are of a very pale olive colour, large, 
glossy, and smooth; they are from three to four, warmly bedded 
in down.” Sir George Mackenzie, in his “Travels in Iceland,” 
says that “the boat in its approach to Vidée passed multitudes of 
eider ducks, which hardly moved out of the way ; and between the 
landing-place and the Governor’s house it required some caution to 
avoid treading on the nests, while the drakes were walking about 
even more familiar than common ducks. The ducks were sitting 
on their nests all round the house, on the garden wall, on the roof, 
in the inside of the house, and on the chapel.” 
The locality where the Eiders make their nests when not in the 
above semi-tame state is always difficult of access. Nevertheless, 
