DUCK SHOOTING 375 



sack and turned his attention at once to gathering 

 the eggs. In a very little while he had as many as 

 he could carry. A short distance below us, on the 

 steep hillside, was a crevice between the rocks, and 

 in this he cached his first sackful, covering them 

 carefully with loose stones that nothing might dis- 

 turb them. In similar manner he made many caches, 

 and in a few hours must have stored at least a thou- 

 sand eggs. In a single cache I counted two hundred 

 and seventy-six. 



The eider duck nests on flat bits of ground cov- 

 ered with a soft, thick moss. When the old duck 

 chooses a suitable spot she scratches a hole of the 

 proper size in the moss, then lines it with down which 

 she plucks from her own breast, and here lays some- 

 times three, sometimes four, eggs, and hatches her 

 brood. I followed Portlooner, and wherever he 

 robbed a nest, gathered the down into a bag. It is 

 very soft, warm and light. Ducks whose nests have 

 been robbed will lay a second and even a third 

 time, always re-lining the nest with fresh down. I 

 killed ducks which had plucked themselves almost 

 bare. 



Finally I told Portlooner that if he wished to con- 

 tinue gathering eggs, I would shoot as many ducks 

 for him as I could. I had forty shot cartridges with 

 me, and in a little while brought down twenty-nine 

 ducks, and wounded some, which unfortunately got 

 into the water and out of reach before I could capture 

 them. 



My cartridges gone, I gathered some twenty brant 



