126 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



ach and breast. On this soft little bed rest five or six 

 dull green eggs. ' ' t 



6 ' We have already seen the wild duck plucking its 

 stomach to cover its eggs with down," put in Jules. 



"The eider-duck does the same, but with a greater 

 expenditure of down. When the mother leaves her 

 nest for a moment, she shelters her eggs under an 

 abundant covering of her finest down. After the de- 

 parture of the brood, those who hunt for eiderdown, 

 especially the Icelanders, visit the abandoned nests 

 and collect the down, but not without danger, since 

 the nests are generally situated in inaccessible places 

 on the ledges of high cliffs. They can reach them 

 only by being lowered with ropes along the face of 

 the precipitous rocks. 



"The quilts that we call eiderdown are large cov- 

 erlets filled with these very fine feathers. Their 

 flocky mass, very light in spite of its size, is the best 

 covering for retaining heat. Those most in de- 

 mand are made of the down of the eider-duck, and are 

 so elastic and light that one can press and hold in two 

 hands the quantity of down necessary for a large 

 bed-coverlet. But as this down is rare and very 

 high-priced, the coarser kind, from the poultry-yard 

 duck and goose, is commonly used. 



"Every year the sheep yields its fleece to the 

 shearer, and in the same way, four times a year, the 

 goose is robbed of a part of its fine feathers and 

 down. The operation is especially easy at molt- 

 ing time, for then the feathers come out with the least 



