156 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



and so was every available object on the island 

 mounds, rock and crevices. This was an eider- 

 down farm. So tame were the ducks as to allow the 

 farmer's wife to stroke them as they sat on their 

 nests. Of course there is another side to this 

 pleasant picture, as we see when we learn how the 

 " good lady " of the island repays the confidence of 

 the birds. But we will allow Dr Hartwig to tell it 

 in his own way. He says : 



" The eider-down 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 of her body. 

 But the 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 calls her mate to her 

 assistance, who willingly plucks the soft feathers 

 from his breast to supply the deficiency. If the cruel 

 robbery be again repeated, which in former times 

 was frequently the case, the poor eider duck abandons 

 the spot, never to return, and seeks for a new home 

 where she may indulge her maternal instinct un- 

 disturbed by the avarice of man." 



