CARRIES HER YOUNG. 463 



on the eggs, and the cock stands watching underneath in the 

 water, so that if any human creature, or beast of prey ap- 

 proaches, he gives her notice by crying, hu, hu ; and then 

 she covers her eggs with moss and down, which she keeps 

 ready prepared, and comes down to her mate on the water. 

 But he does not receive her very kindly ; and if her eggs are 

 lost by any accident, he gives her many blows with his 

 wings, which she must take patiently; and after this he 

 entirely deserts her, and she is obliged to join the flock of 

 her kind, under the same disgrace." 



It is commonly supposed that so soon as the young ones 

 are out of the shell, the mother conducts them to the water. 

 Some say, however, that they remain in the nest twenty- 

 four hours afterwards, until they acquire strength; but I 

 doubt this being the fact, and consider that the delay, if 

 there be any, arises from the eggs not being all hatched 

 as is often the case at one and the same time. 



From the elevated and broken nature of the ground where 

 the eider frequently breeds, it seems pretty certain, that without 

 aid of some kind, the young can never reach the water. But 

 in what manner their transit is effected appears somewhat a 

 mystery. I was assured, however, by a very respectable 

 individual the superintendent of Winga Lighthouse that 

 he himself had often seen the old bird thus occupied. " She 

 threw her progeny over her neck," such were his words, 

 " as a fox would a goose, and thus bore them away to 

 their own element." 



It is generally believed in Scandinavia, that when her 

 young are in jeopardy, the eider, as with the merganser, and 

 some other birds, takes her young on her back, and either 

 swimming or diving, thus conveys them to a place of safety 



