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Female with the general plumage brown, barred with black — 

 lighter on the head and neck ; secondaries and their coverts tipped 

 with white ; head smaller than the male. Length two feet, wing 

 eleven inches. Young male, summer plumage, head and upper 

 part of the hind neck reddish brown, spotted with dusky ; entire 

 fore neck, with the lower part all round, yellowish-white, mottled 

 with dusky ; lower parts brown, the feathers margined with yel- 

 lowish-white ; sides blackish-brown ; tail coverts black : tail brown, 

 broadly tipped with white ; back and rump dark brown, a patch of 

 white on the sides of the latter ; scapulars white, spotted with brown. 

 Young of the year in winter similar to the female. 



This species, so celebrated for the superior quality of its down, is 

 common to both continents. With us, its breeding range extends 

 from Maine, where it is called 'SquamDuck,' to the higher northern 

 latitudes. It makes its nest of grass and sea-weed, lining it with 

 down from the breast of the female; in it she deposits five eggs. 

 After the full number has been laid, the natives rob the nest of both 

 down and eggs. The female again strips her breast and lays a se- 

 cond time. On being again defeated in her purpose, and persisting 

 in raising a brood, the nest is then supplied with down from the 

 breast of the male. In this manner, half a pound of down is col- 

 lected in a season from one nest. Occasionally it is seen at Egg 

 Harbor and in this vicinity. 



" In Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, Lapland, and some parts 

 of the coast of Norway, the Eiders flock together, in particular 

 breeding places, in such numbers, and their nests are so close toge- 

 ther, that a person in walking along, can hardly avoid treading up- 

 on them . The natives of these cold climates eagerly watch the 

 time when the first hatchings of the eggs are laid ; of these they 

 rob the nest, and also of the more important article, the down. The 

 quantity of this valuable commodity, which is thus annually collect- 

 ed in various parts, is uncertain. BufFon mentions one particular 

 year, in which the Icelandic Company sold as much as amounted 

 to upwards of £850 sterling." — Bewick's British Birds. 



