BREEDING OF THE EIDER DUCK. 61 



common large bore fowling piece. Occasionally old 9 birds in full 

 heat will be shot that have the back and wing coverts edged with 

 deep rusty brown, and often very deeply so ; other birds, smaller, 

 (young) at the same season of the year will have the feathers, par- 

 ticularly of the breast, edged with deep gray ; young birds gener- 

 ally have the top of the head darker and the neck much lighter. 

 In some old birds the whole plumage will be unvaried and of a dark 

 brown color. Large flocks are usually made up of a number of 

 small family broods of from five to seven birds that unite from 

 some common cause, and then pursue some common flight until 

 scattered from other causes. The usual feeding grounds of the ei- 

 der duck are shallow waters over a bed of seaweed or mud, at 

 some rods from land on its south, southwest, or west side. They 

 feed principally on mollusks, barnacles, and a variety of marine an- 

 imal life, with an occasional piece of seaweed such as may be ob- 

 tained in the shallow basins of accumulated debris, and on the 

 land-wash. In summer the ducks breed in large numbers on the 

 islands about the harbors, and though their numbers are fast de- 

 creasing there are still colonies of them, making their nests of down 

 from their own breasts, beneath some overhanging grassy clump, 

 and laying from three to five olive colored eggs. The people here 

 rob the nests several successive times during a season, w^hile the 

 female continues to lay eggs in the hopes of securing enough to 

 hatch her brood. When setting, the eider duck remains upon her 

 nest until the very last moment, and then forced, takes a rapid flight 

 a short distance off, and does not appear again — at least I have 

 not noticed it — until the intruder has gone away. To what extent 

 the males assist the females in the matter of incubation I did not suc- 

 ceed in finding out positively, that they do so to a limited extent I 

 cannot doubt. They remain in the region until the last waters of 

 the bays freeze over, and are then seen no more until spring returns 

 and thaws the ice, when they appear in company with the king ei- 

 der (S. spectabilis)^ and the Pacific eider (6". V-nigi-a) — which 

 also are found in immense flocks, but distinct from, that is not min- 

 gling with, the others. 



We here shot several other species of birds ; the titlark {Anfhus 



