THE DOMESTIC GOOSE 125 



ding. I have told you how aquatic birds, especially 

 those of cold countries, have under their outside coat 

 of feathers, which is impregnated with oil to resist 

 wet and storm, an inner coat composed of the finest 

 down and very fit for 

 protecting the bird 

 from the cold. This 

 down we called eider- 

 down. I revert to it 

 now on account of its 

 importance. 



"The best eider- 

 down is furnished by 

 a kind of duck called Eider duck 



the eider-duck, intermediate in size between the 

 goose and the tame duck. This duck lives in a 

 wild state in the frozen regions of the North. It 

 is whitish in color with a black head as well as black 

 stomach and tail. The female, which is rather 

 smaller than the male, is gray except for some brown 

 spots under the body. Its food is composed of fish, 

 which its untiring wing enables it to catch at long dis- 

 tances from the coast and well out to sea. On the 

 water all day searching for fish, the eider-duck re- 

 turns at night to some icy islet, a warm enough rest- 

 ing place for its purpose, well muffled as it is in eider- 

 down. 



"In some hollow of the sharp rocks of the shore it 

 builds its nest, composed on the outside of mosses 

 and dry seaweed, and on the inside of a thick eider- 

 down lining which the mother plucks from her stom- 



