334 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
headlands on the sea coast; the Eider, and King-ducks are hastening 
southward; and the grouse [Ptarmigan] are chattering in great flocks 
upon the hills,’—a vivid picture, truly! At the same place on October 
8, 1783, he writes: “‘The first flight of Eiders went up the river this 
evening. As those birds trim the shore along in the flight-times, 
great numbers of flocks go up this river as high as Friend’s Point, 
and sometimes higher, but on finding their mistake, they commonly 
return again along the opposite side,....in general they keep over 
salt water.” 
On May 10, 1771, near Chateau Bay, he records the following 
interesting observation: ‘‘I measured the flight of the eider ducks 
by the following method: viz. on arriving off Duck Island, six miles 
distant from Henley Tickle, I caused the people to lie on their oars; 
and when I saw the flash of the guns, which were fired at a flock of 
ducks as they passed through, I observed by my watch how long they 
were in flying abreast of us. The result of above a dozen observa- 
tions ascertained the rate to be ninety miles an hour.” Bryant in 
1860 says of the Eider: ‘‘Though constantly harassed by the fishermen 
and inhabitants, [it] still breeds in great abundance along the whole 
extent of the north shore.” On Greenlet Island in the Straits of Belle 
Isle he found over 60 nests. On this island was a stone hut used 
“for the purpose of concealing the hunters in the spring, at which 
time they shoot immense numbers of the Eider or Sea Ducks, as they 
call them.” 
We have already given in a previous chapter, accounts of the 
taking of Eider’s eggs on the Labrador coast. ‘The earliest date 
given by Cartwright for the eggs of this duck is June 3, 1778. On 
June 12, 1779, he writes: “But the ducks had only scraped out their 
nests yet.””. This was in Sandwich Bay. Some of his men, however, 
found a few duck’s eggs the same day. 
Eiders are shot in great numbers by the “liveyers” as the ducks pour 
along the coast both spring and fall. They are less wary than the 
King Eider and their tameness or stupidity leads to their destruction. 
Our experience with Eiders in Labrador was as follows. In the 
Straits of Belle Isle we saw none on the Labrador side except near 
Battle Harbor, and about 30 on the Newfoundland coast. In three 
days, July 11th to 13th, about Battle Harbor and St. Lewis Sound we 
saw 71 Eiders, some of which we may have counted twice. We saw 
one in Hamilton Inlet, 38 near Hopedale, and 32 between Double 
