ns VARIABLE PLUMAGE. 349 



that time are exceedingly shy. Towards the spring they 

 separate in pairs, and in April were found in our " Skar- 

 gard," for the purpose of breeding. Until the female has 

 deposited her eggs, the male is always in her company ; 

 but when incubation begins the males congregate, and one 

 sees them in numbers floating, as it were, in the vicinity 

 of the rocky islets where their mates are sitting. Subse- 

 quently, and when they begin to moult, which is in 

 June, they keep more out at sea, and are then very 

 difficult of approach. 



The plumage of the old male Eider varies much, 

 according to the season of the year. Towards the autumn 

 he loses his brilliant dress, and becomes in great part 

 black, and is, in fact, so altered in appearance as to be 

 hardly recognizable. The female, on the contrary, retains 

 her brown feathers all the year round, and little difference 

 in plumage is observable in her. 



During the daytime, the Eider, unless disturbed, 

 spends fully as much of its time on land, or rather on the 

 cold naked rocks, so common in the " SkJirgard," as in 

 the water, and as it would appear, in a state of repose. 

 What may be the case in the winter, I know not, but in 

 the summer it would seem always to pass the night on 

 terra firma ; for when boating by moonlight, we frequently 

 started these bii*ds from their roosting-places on the rocks, 

 but never saw them on the water. If this be really the 

 case, it would look as if the Eider, unlike most other 

 birds of the Duck tribe, which obtain the greater part of 

 their sustenance during the hours of darkness, feeds only 

 in the daytime. 



Excepting from actual necessity, the Eider very rarely 

 flies to any considerable distance from watei*, its natural 

 element. Even when proceeding from one bay to another, 

 it will follow the indentations, however sinuous, of the 

 coast, rather than cross a headland. We are told, indeed, 



