196 THE NATUKALIST IN NOEWAY. 



may be compressed in a man's hat. If the down is 

 plucked by hand from the breast of a dead bird, it has 

 no elasticity at all. 



The eider is strictly preserved in the north of Nor- 

 way, and is not allowed to be killed north of Thrond- 

 jem. The penalty is 1 sp. dollar for every bird de- 

 stroyed, a considerable sum for a Norwegian peasant 

 to pay. So few birds visit the southern and central 

 parts of this country, that, the law does not prohibit 

 the killing of them there. So much care is now taken 

 of the birds on their breeding- grounds, that a gun is 

 not allowed to be discharged in the neighbourhood, 

 for fear it should scare them away. Notwithstanding 

 all precautions, however, the species gets scarcer and 

 scarcer every year. The places where they breed are 

 called in the Norwegian language fugle-vcer, or bird 

 islands. 



The female eider plucks the down from her own 

 breast, in order to line her nest with it. She is very 

 tame during the time of incubation, and will quietly 

 let any person take her off the nest, in order to re- 

 move the down. A Norwegian naturalist, writing to 

 me from Hammerfest, the principal town of Norwegian 

 Lapland, says, " The eider, though naturally wild, 

 while sitting on her eggs allows herself to be kicked or 

 thrown off her nest in the search for down ; and it is not 

 found that she deserts her nest, or makes another the 

 same year." I may mention that this bird is so tame, 

 she even makes her nest under the door-step of the 

 fisherman's cottage. 



Eider-down is soft and elastic, and is pale brown in 

 colour. It is exported from the north of Norway to 

 Denmark, France, Kussia, Germany, and Great Britain. 



