for watching them instead of the hundreds 

 of other ducks, coots and sheldrakes and 



broadbills that were scattered all over the 



Surgery big pond 



" ~ ** The first thing noticed was that the birds 

 were acting queerly, dipping their heads 

 under water and keeping them there for a 

 full minute or more at a time. That was 

 also curious, for the water under them was 

 too deep for feeding, and the eiders prefer 

 to wait till the tide falls and then gather the 

 exposed shellfish from the rocks, rather than 

 to dive after them like a coot. Darkness 

 came on speedily to hide the birds, who were 

 still dipping their heads as if bewitched, and 

 I went away no wiser for my watching. 



A few weeks later there was another eider, 

 a big drake, in the same pond, behaving in 

 the same queer way. Thinking perhaps that 

 this was a wounded bird that had gone crazy 

 from a shot in the head, I pushed out after 

 him in an old tub of a boat; but he took 

 wing at my approach, like any other duck, 

 and after a vigorous flight lit farther down 

 the pond and plunged his head under water 



\ 



