THE EIDER-DUCK. 
rocky islets beyond Portland, in the state of Maine, 
being the southern boundary of their breeding 
places; but they are only very plentiful in Behring’s 
Straits, Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, and other arc- 
tic regions. 
According to M. T. Brunnich, who wrote an ex- 
press treatise on the natural history of the eider- 
_ duck, their first object, after pairing, 1s to procure a 
suitable place for their nest, preferring the shelter 
of a juniper bush where it can be had, and, where 
there 1s no juniper, contenting themselves with tufts 
of seagrass (Arundo arenaria, Poa maritima, Elymus 
arenarius, &c.), bundles of seaweed cast up by the 
tide, the crevices of rocks, or any hollow place 
which they can tind. Some of the Icelandic pro- 
prietors of breeding grounds, in order to accommo- 
date them, cut out holes in rows on the smooth 
sloping banks, where they would not otherwise 
build, but of which they gladly take possession 
when thus scooped out.* It is not a little remark- 
able that, like several other seabirds, 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 la- 
bour in actually forming islands, by separating from 
the main island certain promontories joined to it by 
narrow isthmuses. 
The reason of this 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. 
Both the male and the female eider-ducks work in 
concert in building their nest, laying a rather coarse 
foundation of drift grass, dry tangle, and seaweed, 
which is collected in some quantity. Upon this 
* Hooker’s Tour in Iceland, p. 53. 
