30 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 
cultivated fields, and are composed of wet rushes 
and coarse grass, forming a slight hollow or cavity 
in a tussock. This nest is gradually increased, du- 
ring the period of laying and sitting, to the height 
of five or six inches. The eggs are usually four in 
number, very thick at the great end, and tapering to 
a narrower point at the other than those of our barn- 
door fowls. - In every instance which has come un- 
der my observation, they are placed during incuba- 
tion in an almost upright position, with the large 
end uppermost; and this appears to be the common 
practice of several other species of birds that breed 
in these marshes.’’* 
The proceedings of the willet, and such birds as 
thus make choice of moist materials for their nests, 
among which the song-thrush may be mentioned, 
are strikingly contrasted with those of several other 
birds which also build on the ground. We allude 
- here to water-birds, chiefly of the duck family. The 
long-tailed duck (Clangula glacialis, Furmine), for 
example, an occasional visitant of England, which 
breeds in Greenland, Hudson’s Bay, and other nor- 
thern parts, makes her nest among the grass near 
the sea, lining it with down plucked from her own 
breast, equally fine and valuable with the well- 
known eider-down, though it cannot be procured in 
such quantity. 
It is not generally known, we believe, that any 
other bird thus robs herself of her own covering, 
from maternal affection, besides the eider-duck 
(Somateria mollissima, Lracu), whose celebrity re- 
quires us to bestow upon it particular attention. For 
size it approaches nearer to the goose than the duck, 
being above two feet long. and weighing about seven 
pounds. Its native country extends from about 45° 
north to the highest arctic latitudes hitherto ex- 
plored, both in Europe and America; the Farn 
Isles, off the coast of Northumberland, and the 
* Wilson’s Amer. Ornith,, vii., 28. + Ibid., 54. 
