SPITZBERGEN AND GREENLAND. Gl 



mucli. These birds, except the strwidjager, kirmeio, and 

 mountain- d uch , all make their nests upon the high rocks, 

 where they arc secured from the foxes and bears ; but some 

 of them make their nests higher than others. 



They sit in so great numbers or flock? upon the rocks, 

 chiefly at the time when they hatch their young ones, which 

 is about the latter end of June or beginning of July, that if 

 they flie up when the sun shineth, they shade the ground 

 like a cloud, and make so great a noise that one man can 

 hardly hear the other. 



The kirmeics and mountain- ducks, and also the strund- 

 jagers, make their nests on low grounds (that one would 

 think the high water must needs run over them), on the small 

 islands, where they are secure from the foxes ; but not from 

 the white bears, for they swim in the water from one island 

 to the other. We took up great store of their eggs. 



The uests of these birds are not all made after the same 

 manner. For the mountain-duck makes its nest of the 

 feathers of its own belly, mixing them with moss. 



The feathers of these nests are not the edder down brought 

 us from Island, for that cometh from great birds (that the 

 inhabitants there call edder), and costeth, when it is cleansed 

 from the moss, a crown a pound, as I have been informed ; 

 but the feathers of the mountain- ducks of Spitzhergen, which 

 they call down, the seamen put into their pillows and straw 

 sacks, which if they should be cleansed would be more worth. ^ 



The kirmew layeth their eggs upon moss, and so do the 

 rotges. The nests of the rest of the birds were too high for 

 us, so that we could hardly, and not without great difficulty, 

 reach them. If it be never so dark by reason of a mist, yet 

 every bird knoweth how to find their own nest again, and 

 flyeth directly to it. 



^ The eider duck is the Somateria mollissima of naturalists, found in 

 Spitzbergen, Iceland, and tbc northern parts of the British Islands. (See 

 Appendix.) 



