THE DUCK. 



233 



in. Sea-ducks, which feed in salt-water, and 

 dive much, have a broad bill, bending up- 

 wards, a large hind toe, and a long blunt tail. 

 Pond-ducks, which feed in plashes, have a 

 straight and narrow bill, a small hind-toe, and 

 a sharp-pointed train. The former are called, 

 by our decoy-men, foreign ducks : the latter 

 are supposed to be natives of England. It 

 would be tedious to enter into the minute 

 varieties of such a number of birds ; all agree- 

 ing in the same general figure, the same habits 

 and mode of living, and differing in little 

 more than their size and the colours of their 

 plumage. In this tribe we may rank, as na- 

 tives of our own European dominions, the 

 Eider Duck, 1 which is double the size of a 



also Nos. 183 and 184 of " Penny Magazine," to which 

 we are indebted for the above Note. 



1 In Britain the range of this valuable species extends 

 to about the 55th degree of north latitude, to the south- 

 ward of which it becomes of very rare occurrence. Its 

 limits, however, towards the pole are scarcely ascertained, 

 as it has been found, I believe, in the highest latitudes yet 

 penetrated by navigators. In Iceland, Spitzbergen, and 

 other arctic regions of Europe, it is very abundant; and 

 in those cold countries is highly beneficial to the inhabi- 

 tants, on account of its feathers, elastic down, eggs, &c. 

 It is equally common in parallel latitudes of the North | 

 American continent, and, in fact, may be considered a 

 general inhabitant of the Frigid zone. Upon the Nor- 

 thumbrian coast many eiders breed upon the group of 

 Fern islands, situated towards the northern extremity 

 of that county, and from two to eight miles distant from 

 the shore, and which, with Coquet island (about ten 

 miles farther along the coast,) may be reckoned the most 

 southern breeding-stations of these birds. About April 

 they are seen assembling in small groups along the shores 

 of the mainland, from whence they cross over to the 

 islands in May, soon after which the females begin to 

 prepare their nests, and they usually commence laying 

 about the twentieth of that month. The males, as soon 

 as this takes place, and incubation commences, leave the 

 females, and again spread themselves along the shore, in 

 companies of four or five together, and do riot (as far as 

 my observation goes) " continue on watch near the 

 shore, as long as the females remain sitting," and then 

 desert both her and the newly hatched brood, as men- 

 tioned in Shaw's Zoology. The usual number of eggs 

 is five, of a pale asparagus-green colour, of an oblong 

 shape, and not much less than those of a goose. The 

 nest is composed of dried grasses, mixed with a quantity 

 of the smaller algae, and as incubation proceeds (and 

 which lasts for a month) a lining of down, plucked by 

 the bird from her own body, is added. This addition is 

 made daily, and at last becomes so considerable in mass, 

 as to envelope and entirely conceal the eggs, contribut- 

 ing, perhaps by its effect, as a nonconductor of heat, to 

 the perfect developement of the foetus, and serving also 

 as a protection from gulls and other enemies. The 

 young, as soon as hatched, are conducted to the water, 

 which in some instances must be effected by the parent 

 conveying them in her bill, as I have often seen the 

 nest in such situations as to preclude the possibility of 

 their arriving at it in any other way ; and indeed, the 

 keeper of one of the lighthouses (upon the impending 

 rock close to which an eider duck, for many seasons, 

 had her nest, and hatched her young) assured me, that 

 he had seen the bird engaged in this interesting duty. 

 The down of the eider is remarkably light and elastic, 

 not more so perhaps than that of its congener the King 



VOL. ii. 



common duck, with a black bill ; the Velvet 

 Duck, not so large, and with a yellow bill ; 

 the Scoter, with a knob at the base of a yel- 

 low bill ; the Tufted Duck, adorned with a 

 thick crest ; the Scaup Duck, (see Plate XX. 

 fig. 13.) less than the common duck, with the 

 bill of a grayish blue colour ; the Golden Eye, 

 (see Plate XIX. fig. 34.) with a large white 

 spot at the corners of the mouth, resembling 

 an eye ; the Sheldrake, with the bill of a 

 bright red, and swelling into a knob ; the 

 Mallard, which is the stock from whence our 

 tame breed has probably been produced ; the 

 Pintail, with the two middle feathers of the 

 tail three inches longer than the rest ; the Po- 

 chard, with the head and neck of a bright 



Eider, the Scoter, and some others of the oceanic Ana- 

 tidae; hut as it is procured in greater quantity from this 

 species, the whole imported from Iceland and other nor- 

 thern countries (though mixed with that of several others) 

 is still sold under the denomination of Eider down. 

 From the nest of two or three of these birds, I have fre- 

 quently procured as much down as would fill a middling- 

 sized pillow, though the same, when compressed, was 

 not above two handfuls, and did not weigh above an 

 ounce. As plucked from the living bird, it is much 

 more elastic than when taken from the body after death, 

 a fact confirmative of what I have formerly advanced, 

 viz. that the plumage is not mere inert matter, as be- 

 lieved by Montagu and others, but is endowecf with a 

 kind of living principle, and influenced by the state and 

 condition of the bird. In Iceland, Greenland, &c. where 

 the eider down forms a great branch of their commerce, 

 and where the birds breed in great numbers near to each 

 other, the natives wait anxiously for the event. The 

 first production of eggs, together with the down, is taken 

 from them, but the next they are allowed to incubate, 

 and rear the young, though a part of the down is from 

 time to time removed, the female continuing to supply 

 it as long as any remains upon the lower part of her 

 body. The food of the eider consists of various species 

 of shell-fish, crustaceous animals, and the roes of these 

 and fishes. Such as I have dissected were generally 

 filled with the triturated remains of mytili, tellineae, &c.; 

 and twice I found the subjects gorged with the spawn of 

 fish. They dive for their food like the Scoters, remain- 

 ing for a long time submerged, and often in water of six 

 or eight fathoms deep. They also fly with great strength, 

 and at the rate (as calculated) of more than ninety miles 

 in the hour. When approached in a boat they generally 

 take wing whilst beyond gun-shot, and when suddenly 

 surprised they dive ; but if actively pursued, and com- 

 pelled to dive repeatedly, they may be stfefar tired out 

 as at last to be incapable of submerging with sufficient 

 quickness to prevent a fatal aim being taken. In this 

 manner I have often succeeded in procuring specimens; 

 and the same mode, it appears, is in use amongst the 

 Greenlanders, who strike them with their darts as they 

 rise fatigued to the surface after long-continued pursuit. 

 The trachea of the malebird is of equal diameter through- 

 out its length, and composed of hard and perfect rings, 

 lined with a membrane. The lower larynx, or bone of 

 divarication, is enlarged in front, and furnished on the 

 left side with an elevated, flatly globose, bony protuber- 

 ance, or labyrinth, about the size of a large nut. The 

 bronchi are large, swelling much toward their middle, 

 and composed of imperfect rings, united by a membrane. 

 That on the left side, which proceeds from the tympan- 

 um, is of much larger diameter than the other, and both 

 suddenly decrease when they enter the substance of the 

 2 a 



