198 THE EIDER DUCK 
marshes, since it finds its rest and food on the open sea. Conse- 
quently it is not migratory, and stray specimens only visit the 
southern shores of England. Where it was bred, there, probably, or 
not far off, it remains all the year round. The Farn Islands, off the 
coast of Northumberland, are considered to be the extreme southern 
limit of its breeding-ground. In the Hebrides, the Orkneys and 
Shetland Islands, it is quite at home, but in none of these places is 
it found in sufficient numbers to give it importance. It is rare on 
the Irish coast. 
In the Arctic regions, in Iceland, and on the rocky coasts of 
Norway and Sweden, Eider Ducks are very numerous. In Labrador, 
Audubon informs us, they begin to form their nests about the end 
of May or the beginning of June. ‘For this purpose some resort 
to islands scantily furnished with grass ; others choose a site beneath 
the spreading boughs of stunted firs, and, in such places, five, six, 
or even eight are sometimes found beneath a single bush ; many are 
placed on the sheltered shelvings of rocks a few feet above high- 
water mark. The nest, which is sunk as much as possible into the 
ground, is formed of sea-weeds, mosses, and dried twigs, so matted 
and interlaced as to give an appearance of neatness to the central 
cavity, which rarely exceeds seven inches in diameter. In the 
beginning of June the eggs are deposited, the male attending upon 
the female the whole time. The eggs, which are regularly placed 
on the moss and weeds of the nest without any down, are generally 
from five to seven. When the full complement of eggs has been 
laid,’the female begins to pluck some down from the lower part of 
the body; this operation is daily continued for some time, until 
the roots of the feathers, as far forward as she can reach, are quite 
bare. This down she disposes beneath and around the eggs. When 
she leaves the nest to go in search of food, she places it over her 
eggs to keep up their warmth.’ 
Sir W. J. Hooker, in his interesting Journal of a Tour in Iceland, 
describes the nests as he saw them in the little island of Akaroe, 
where, as on other uninhabited islands, the Eider Ducks breed in 
great numbers. ‘On our landing on the rocky island, we found 
the Eider fowls sitting upon their nests, which were rudely 
formed of their own down, generally among the old and _ half- 
decayed sea-weed, that the storms had cast high up on the beach, 
but sometimes only among the bare rocks. It was difficult to make 
these birds leave their nests, and so little inclined were many of 
them to do it, that they even permitted us to handle them, whilst 
they were sitting, without their appearing to be at all alarmed. 
Under each of them were two or four eggs ; the latter is the number 
they lay, but from many of them two had been taken for food by 
the natives, who prefer those which have young ones in them. 
June 24th.” A few days later (June 27,) he visited the island of 
Vidée, the residence of the ex-governor, where, he says, ‘ we were 
