22 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



and Greenland, are perhaps the greatest centres of the 

 trade in Eider down. In many parts of Iceland so 

 carefully is the bird preserved that shooting is forbidden, 

 and the firing of a gun is punishable with a fine. So 

 jealous are the Icelanders of their famous Ducks that 

 ships are not allowed to fire salutes near the colonies of 

 Eiders, in case the nervous birds should forsake the 

 district, which would mean absolute bankruptcy for the 

 unfortunate owner. In some parts of Iceland rough 

 walls are built with recesses, in which the Ducks make 

 their nests ; and so tame do the birds become that they 

 even hatch their eggs on the roofs of the houses and in 

 the window recesses. In other districts the grassy 

 banks near the sea are marked out in squares of about 

 a foot, each containing a hollow in which the Eider 

 Ducks make their nests. The nests are robbed of the 

 down as soon as the eggs are laid, and by judicious 

 management the birds may be induced to replace the 

 stolen down several times in succession. Curiously 

 enough the down plucked by the bird itself is the most 

 valuable, that obtained from a dead bird being of only 

 second-rate quality and nothing near so elastic. A 

 great quantity of down is, however, taken from dead 

 birds, which is usually " harvested " in winter or early 

 spring. A nest yields from half an ounce to an ounce 

 of down, so that by removing it each Duck will produce 

 about a quarter of a pound of the precious commodity 



