30 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 



cultivated fields, and are composed of wet rushes 

 and coarse grass, forming a slight hollow or cavity 

 in a tussock. This nest is gradually increased, du- 

 ring the period of laying and sitting, to the height 

 of five or six inches. The eggs are usually four in 

 number, very thick at the great end, and tapering to 

 a narrower point at the other than those of our barn- 

 door fowls. In every instance which has come un- 

 der my observation, they are placed during incuba- 

 tion in an almost upright position, with the large 

 end uppermost ; and this appears to be the common 

 practice of several other species of birds that breed 

 in these marshes."* 



The proceedings of the willet, and such birds as 

 thus make choice of moist materials for their nests, 

 among which the song-thrush may be mentioned, 

 are strikingly contrasted with those of several other 

 birds which also build on the ground. We allude 

 here to water-birds, chiefly of the duck family. The 

 long-tailed duck (Clangula glacialis, FLEMING), for 

 example, an occasional visitant of England, which 

 breeds in Greenland, Hudson's Bay, and other nor- 

 thern parts, makes her nest among the grass near 

 the sea, lining it with down plucked from her own 

 breast, equally fine and valuable with the well- 

 known eider-down, though it cannot be procured in 

 such quantity.! 



It is not generally known, we believe, that any 

 other bird thus robs herself of her own covering, 

 from maternal affection, besides the eider-duck 

 (Somateria mollissima, LEACH), whose celebrity re- 

 quires us to bestow upon it particular attention. For 

 size it approaches nearer to the goose than the duck, 

 being above two feet long, and weighing about seven 

 pounds. Its native country extends from about 45 

 north to the highest arctic latitudes hitherto ex- 

 plored, both in Europe and America ; the Farn 

 Isles, off the coast of Northumberland, and the 

 * Wilson's Amer. Ornith., vii., 28. | Ibid., 54. 



