NORTHERN EIDER 



301 



can be found, there is no nat- 

 ural cold which these ducks 

 cannot endure; they are 

 known to live in tempera- 

 tures of 50 degrees below 

 zero in places where the 

 water is kept open by the 

 rapidity of the current or 

 tide rip. (While such temp- 

 eratures seem exceedingly 

 low, it must be remembered 

 that no matter how cold the 

 air, unfrozen salt water can- 

 not be colder than about 28 

 degrees above zero.) 



The Northern and the 

 American Eiders belong to 

 the same species as the Com- 

 mon Eider Duck of Europe, 

 which produces most of the 

 eider-down of commerce. In 

 1939 the Canadian Govern- 

 ment granted the necessary 

 authorization to the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company to begin the commercial production of eider-down 

 in southern Baffin Island. It is probable that the Northern Eider is the 

 variety from which most of this down will be collected. The eider-down 

 industry on the southern coast of the Labrador Peninsula is dealt with 

 in the "Life Story" of the American Eider. 



The habits and behaviour, nests and eggs of this race are very 

 similar to those of the American Eider Duck and are fully described in 

 connection with that bird. 



