28 THE BIRD WATCHER 
subaqueous vineries. Wt I have seen seaweed in 
the mother’s bill also, and this was not only the 
brown sort, but a soft green variety which grows 
sparingly with it. When feeding, without any 
doubt, upon living prey, eider-ducks are accustomed 
to dive, going right to the bottom, and often coming 
up with what they find there—a crab or other kind 
of shell-fish—to dispose of it on the surface at their 
leisure. The chick can dive as easily as the grown 
bird, but one may watch these family excursions for 
a long time without once seeing either of them do so. 
Instead, they now merely duck to get the seaweed, 
which almost reaches the surface. The chicks, how- 
ever, are often raised by the swell of the sea beyond 
the height at which they can nibble it comfortably, 
and it is then funny to see the hinder portion of their 
little bodies sticking up in the air, with their legs 
violently kicking, as they hold on with might and 
main to prevent being floated off on the wave. 
Sometimes a brisk one bids fair to tilt them right 
over, but they always ride it in the most buoyant 
manner. The motion with which they do so—or 
rather with which it is done for them—is sometimes 
very curious, for they look as though they were 
swung out at the end of a piece of elastic, and then 
drawn smoothly back again, just as they are on the 
point of turning a somersault; but more often it 
is a plain bob-bobbing. Thus over wave and ripple 
they bob lightly along, whilst their mother, floating 
deeper and heavier, bobs with more equipoise—a 
