AMERICAN EIDER 311 



Probably it is due to the tameness of the bird, which appears actually to 

 seek the vicinity of a human dwelling for its nesting place and to fre- 

 quent those parts of the coast which are more frequented by man. The 

 Icelandic eider farms are frequently situated on little islands off the 

 coast. Small circular or oblong erections of rough stones are made among 

 the hummocks, to protect the brooding ducks from wind and driving 

 rain. All the sea fowl in these farms become exceedingly tame, as no 

 gun is allowed to be fired and everything liable to disturb the ducks is 

 carefully banished. Those who know how to handle them can even 

 stroke the backs of the ducks as they sit on their eggs." 



In spite of the plea of naturalists throughout the years for the pro- 

 tection of the eider duck in America and for the establishment of an 

 eider-down industry on this continent, it was not until 1933 that such 

 an industry was started on a permanent basis. 



Of this young industry Lewis (1938) says: "A small industry of 

 this kind began its activities on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence, in the eastern part of the Province of Quebec, in 1933. It was 

 made possible by a co-operative agreement between the Department of 

 the Interior, Dominion of Canada, and the appropriate authorities of 

 the Province of Quebec. Its principal object was improved conservation 

 of the American Eider Duck." 



The following extracts from Dr. Lewis' article on this industry are 

 of particular interest: "Down is usually collected from each nest on at 

 least two occasions, a few days apart, during the incubation period. A 

 little of the down, preferably the dirtiest, is not taken away, but is 

 quickly molded into a pad and placed in the bottom of the nest. The 

 eggs are then carefully replaced on this pad. In some cases it has been 

 found profitable to gather down from a nest three times. When the 

 mother duck has no more down for her nest she covers the eggs with 

 leaves or dead grass, which seem to meet her requirements satisfactorily. 

 Practically no down is gathered after the eggs have hatched." 



"The down is cleaned by a method developed in Iceland. This con- 

 sists of warming and shaking the down on racks in the sun on two or 

 three fine days, then heating it over a stove and rubbing it repeatedly 

 and rather forcibly over a frame strung with taut parallel cords, then 

 removing the few remaining bits of foreign material by hand." 



"From thirty-five to forty nests are ordinarily necessary for the 

 production of a pound of down. . . . Among the thousands of nests 

 from which down has been removed during the incubation period there 

 have been found less than a dozen in which the eggs subsequently failed 

 to hatch. . . . It is safe to conclude that careful handling of the eggs 

 and gathering of down in the manner described seldom, if ever, causes 

 the incubating eider to desert her nest or prevents normal hatching of 

 the young." 



"In 1939 the Hudson Bay Company obtained from the Minister 

 of Mines and Resources at Ottawa the necessary authorization to begin 

 commercial production of eider-down from southern Baffin Island on a 

 fairly large scale in 1940." 



