38 EIDER DUCK. 
swimmers. When the breeding-season is over, they generally 
stand out to sea; yet numbers are seen frequenting the bays 
and creeks about the coast. The eggs furnish food to the 
inhabitants, and the down is bought on the spot at about 
thirteen or fourteen shillings a pound, by merchants, who send 
it to different parts of the world. It is used chiefly for 
making bed-coverings, on account of its exceeding lightness 
as well as warmth; a large bed-quilt sometimes weighing only 
five pounds three ounces, of which the linen covering weighs 
two pounds and a half, leaving two pounds eleven ounces 
for the Hider-down.’ 
Rennie writes as follows in his edition of Montagu’s ‘Orni- 
thological Dictionary;—‘Brunnich, who wrote an _ express 
treatise on the Hider Duck, informs us that their first object 
after pairing is to procure a suitable place for their nest, 
preferring the shelter of a juniper bush, where it can be had; 
and where there is no juniper, they content themselves with 
tufts of sea-grass, bundles of sea-weed cast up by the tide, 
the crevices of rocks, or any hollow place which they can 
find. Some of the Iceland proprietors of breeding-grounds, 
in order to accommodate them, cut out holes in rows on the 
smooth sloping banks where they would not otherwise build, 
but gladly take possession of them when scooped out to 
hand. It is not a little remarkable that, like several other 
sea-birds, they almost always select small islands, their nests 
being seldom, if ever, found on the shores of the mainland, 
or even of a large island. The Icelanders are so well aware 
of this, that they have expended a great deal of labour in 
actually forming islands, by separating from the main island 
certain promontories joined to it by narrow isthmuses. 
The reason of the preference of islands seems to be security 
from the intrusion of dogs, cattle, and other land animals, 
to whose vicinity they have so great an aversion, that the 
Icelanders are careful to remove these, as well as cats, to a 
distance from their settlements. ‘One year,’ says Hooker, ‘a 
fox got over upon the ice to the Island of Vidoe, and 
caused great alarm; he was, however, though with difficulty, 
taken, by bringing another fox to the island, and fastening 
it by astring near the haunt of the former, by which means 
he was allured within shot of the hunter.’ 
The Arctic Fox is traditionally said to have been introduced 
into Iceland by one of the Norwegian Kings, to punish the 
disaffection of the inhabitants. 
