A LABRADOR SPRING 



geur of this coast. While the eider makes its 

 nest on the ground often concealed under the 

 grass and bushes, and lays from four to seven 

 large olive green eggs, which it smothers in its 

 own down, the whistler lays six or more pale 

 green eggs in a hollow tree. Of the former we 

 found many nests, of the latter only one, and 

 this was in a large hollow stub about twelve 

 feet from the ground on the edge of a high cliff 

 overlooking the sea near Esquimaux Point. In 

 this well chosen spot, which commanded exten- 

 sive views of the surrounding country and 

 ocean, a whistler had deposited fifteen eggs and 

 covered them thickly with down. 



As the cliff was over a hundred feet high, the 

 process of transfer of the future brood from the 

 nest to the water would have been well worth 

 waiting to see, if only one had had the time. 

 Tree-nesting ducks have been observed to entice 

 the young from the hole, inducing them to drop 

 or flutter down into the grass or the water, 

 and it has been said that they sometimes fly 

 down carrying the young in the bill, or even 

 on the back. Careful observations of these last 

 named methods are, however, few or lacking, 

 and our regret at not being able to stay 



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