III. THE DABCHICKS, I 69 



were so tame that we could stroke them on 

 their nests ; and the good lady told us that 

 .there was scarcely a duck on the island which 

 would not allow her to take its eggs without 

 flight or fear." 



128. But upon the back of the canvas, as it 

 were, of this pleasant picture — on the back of 

 the leaf, in his book, p. 65, — this description 

 being given in p. 66, — Doctor Hartwig tells 

 us, in his own peculiar soppy and sandy way 

 — half tearful, half Dr3'asdusty, (or may not 

 we say — it sounds more Icelandic — ' Dry-as- 

 sawdusty,') these less cheerful facts. ** The 

 eiderdown is easily collected, as the birds are 

 quite tame. The female having laid five or 

 six pale greenish-olive eggs, in a nest thickly 

 lined with her beautiful down, the collectors, 

 after carefully removing the bird, rob the nest 

 of its contents ; after which they replace her. 

 She then begins to lay afresh — though this 

 time only three or four eggs, — and again has 

 recourse to the down on her body. But her 

 greedy persecutors once more rifle her nest, 

 and oblige her to line it for the third time. 

 Now, however, her own stock of down is 

 exhausted, and with a plaintive voice she 



