324 



BAY, SEA OR DIVING DUCKS 



The same author gives the following account, indicating enmity be- 

 tween this eider and the glaucous gull: "The large glaucous gulls prob- 

 ably do great damage to the 

 young of this bird. An ex- 

 perience that I had one day 

 strengthened this belief. I 

 had come to a pond where 

 there was an old Spectacled 

 Eider with three young. As I 

 was watching them, I noticed 

 that two pairs of the large 

 gulls were nesting around this 

 same pond. One of these gulls 

 was shot, dropping into the 

 water near the old duck. She 

 immediately left her brood 

 and fluttered toward the gull, 

 calling excitedly. At first she 

 was very cautious, staying 

 several feet away from it, but 

 finally gathering courage she 

 dashed at the dead bird, 

 jumped over it, and as she 

 did so, made a half-hearted 

 peck at the carcass. This was 

 repeated again and again. 

 Liking her courage, I de- 

 cided to help her family, so shot the remaining gulls. The female be- 

 came almost beside herself with anxiety, and when I left, was dashing 

 from one dead gull to the other." 



The Spectacled Eider is apparently more of a vegetarian than the 

 other eiders. Only sixteen stomachs, however, were examined for analysis 

 of the food of this species and this number is too small to give more than 

 a suggestion of food preferences. Slightly more than three-quarters of the 

 food consumed by the birds examined consisted of animal matter as 

 indicated by the following percentages: molluscs, 42; insects, 32; crusta- 

 ceans, 3; total animal food, 77 per cent. Pondweeds, 7; crowberry, 2; 

 marestail, 1; sedges, 2; miscellaneous plant food. 11; total vegetable 

 food, 23 per cent. 



