372 FEATHERED GAME 



on the low, sod-covered roofs of their huts, in 

 which the Eiders may make their nests, for 

 peace and perfect protection have made them 

 fearless and half domesticated. Here they are 

 protected by law and the destruction of nests or 

 eggs is punished by a heavy fine, for the down 

 is a source of considerable profit to the people. 

 Some few birds bred for years on the Maine 

 coast in Penobscot Bay, and near Grand Menan 

 Island, further east, but in both places the 

 collector's persistency (always for the advance- 

 ment of science, of course) has discouraged all 

 attempts there of late years. Within a short 

 time, however, the State has decided that they 

 are worthy of some consideration and an island, 

 where each year a few have succeeded in nest- 

 ing in spite of all obstacles, has been set apart 

 and efficiently guarded from intrusion in the 

 hope of their colony's increasing in numbers, 

 which it bids fair to do. Its main nesting, how- 

 ever, takes place in the northeastern corner of 

 our continent, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 northward along the shores of Hudson Bay and 

 the Labrador coast. Beyond these limits it is 

 replaced by the Greenland Eider which differs 

 very slightly from this species. 



