THE COMMON EIDEE. 195 



mare decidentibus atque in fungos aut concJiulas degene- 

 rantibus, fundamentum habeo, quod nee ratio } nee expe- 

 rimentum, nee auctoritas id persuadet. Concedo equidem 

 ex lignis putrescentibus in marl nasei vermes, non circa. 

 Scotiam tantum, sed alibi etiam. Nego tamen aves 

 Britannicas, de quibus hie sermo est, inde habere ortum 

 suum" Thus Pontoppidan writes, but it is evident 

 that the bishop thought it necessary to declare his 

 unbelief in the peculiar notions entertained in his own 

 days concerning the origin of British birds ; he goes 

 on to declare that those birds were produced from eggs, 

 after incubation, " more alienorum anserum. Probatur 

 testimonio Alberti Magni, Gerhardi a Vera, et Batavo- 

 rum, qui id oculis viderunt." 



The common eider (Somateria mollissima) is called 

 in Norway the eddr-fugl, and breeds on the small 

 islands off the north and north-west coast of Finmark. 

 It is also common in the Varanger-fjord, in East Fin- 

 mark, and in the Loffodens. This bird was formerly 

 very common in Greenland, Iceland, and Spitzbergen \ 

 but it has been so persecuted there for the last twenty 

 years, that its numbers have greatly decreased. The 

 same may be said of it on the breeding-grounds off 

 the Norwegian coast. A few straggling birds may 

 sometimes be seen near Christiansand; and I have 

 myself seen a remarkably fine male specimen, which 

 was shot on Ladegaardsoen, near Christiania, in the 

 month of May. 



The down of the eider is more valuable than that of 

 any other bird. The reason of this is simple : this 

 species plucks the down off her breast to line her nest 

 with, hence its elasticity. The down is so elastic, that 

 the quantity required wherewith to line a large quilt 



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