THE EIDER-DUCK 281 



and occasionally shows her appreciation by throwing up her head 

 slightly. 



When paired the drakes accompany their mates while choice is 

 being made of the nesting-place, but after incubation has begun the 

 males are said to withdraw themselves altogether. 1 This, however, 

 does not tally with my own experience, for in the case of isolated 

 nests in Scotland the male was generally to be seen on the water not 

 far away, and the duck when flushed from the nest joined him at once. 

 The same has been noted at the Fames. 2 In the Iceland colonies it 

 was usual to see the drakes standing close to their sitting mates, and 

 in the course of a few hours one might see hundreds doing sentry 

 duty within a few feet of the nest. The duck is well known to be a 

 very close sitter, but Mr. W. H. St. Quintin, who has bred these birds 

 in confinement, records the astonishing fact that all his ducks have sat 

 steadily on their eggs throughout the whole of the incubation period, 

 which at the lowest computation lasts for twenty-seven or twenty- 

 eight days, without once coming off the nest to feed or wash. In the 

 case of his first duck, Mr. St. Quintin was much concerned when she 

 remained so long on the nest, and placed food and water within her 

 reach, but they were never touched, and before the young were 

 hatched she was quite grown over by a mass of chickweed. 3 The 

 young remain in the nest for some hours after hatching till they are 

 thoroughly dry, and then follow the duck to the water. I have seen 

 an Icelandic girl pick up the youngsters as they tumbled among the 

 rocks and throw them far out into the river, where the old duck was 

 waiting for them. The river in question was partly glacier-fed, and 

 foamed and raged past at a pace which bid fair to sweep the entire 

 family away, but to my astonishment the ducklings seemed absolutely 

 at home in their new element, and managed somehow to hold their 



1 G. Bolam, Birds of Northumberland and the Eastern Borders, p. 405. 



2 P. B. Kirkman, in litt. 



3 Hantzsch thinks that in Iceland the ducks leave the nest when undisturbed only for a 

 short time daily, swimming about but apparently taking very little food, and subsisting on 

 the accumulated fat on their bodies. 



