THE EIDER DUCK. 459 



few bred with us, as also in the more southern and central 

 parts of Scandinavia ; but the larger portion pass the summer 

 months in the far north. M. Malm met with this bird in 

 great abundance in all the lakes and rivers as high up even 

 as the mouth of the Passwig, in north-eastern Lapland. In 

 Denmark it is very common during migration, and Kjser- 

 bolling has reason to believe that some few breed there. The 

 female lays six to nine yellowish-white eggs. Migrates. 



The Eider Duck (Ejder-Gas, or Eider-Goose, Sw. ; Soma- 

 teria mollissima, Leach). This bird, though asserted to 

 have been seen in the Wenern, and even in the river Clara, 

 one of the northern tributaries to that lake, was never 

 observed about Ronnum. It is very common, however, in 

 the neighbouring Skargard, as also on all the coasts of 

 Scandinavia (eastern as well as western), from Scania to the 

 North Cape ; but more especially on certain islands called 

 Fugle-Vcer, or, bird preserves, on the north-west coast 

 of Norway, where it is protected which is not usually the 

 case in other parts of the peninsula and where the eggs 

 and down are only taken in moderate quantities. It is pretty 

 common in some parts of Denmark. 



Ekstrom imagines there may be two kinds of eider in 

 Scandinavia namely, the Common Eider and the Smal- 

 ntibbad, or Narrow-billed, Eider, spoken of by Brehm. He is 

 more particularly led to this conclusion from what Faber, in 

 his Ornithology of Iceland, says of the habits of the eider, 

 which do not agree with the habits of those found on the 

 eastern coast of Sweden. 



Like the wild swan, the eider does not seem in any 

 manner affected by cold ; and unless the sea is entirely 

 frozen over, it remains on the coast during the whole winter. 



