276 MAMMALS AND BIRDS OF THE ARCTIC 



Eider-down is most valuable if collected before incubation has commenced, since 



when this takes place it becomes mixed up with the other materials of the nest, 



such as grass and seaweed. When such a mixture has occurred the down is more 



easily freed from grass than from seaweed, so that grass-down is more valuable 



than seaweed-down. A pound of well-cleaned down is the yield from five to seven 



nests, and is worth about fifteen shillings. In colour the down is brownish, with 



whitish specks. So closely does it adhere that scarcely any is blown away by the 



wind, and yet it never felts into a mass, but remains light and elastic. The uses 



of the eider are many. The skins are worked up into warm underclothing ; the 



eggs, which are gathered in large quantities in June and July, are used for 



domestic purposes, and the flesh is eaten, especially in Greenland, although said 



to have an oily flavour. 



A much handsomer bird, the king-eider (S. spectabilis), like its 

 King-Eider. .. . ... , ^ 



relative, inhabits the American, Asiatic, and, more rarely, the European 



shores of the Arctic Ocean. In Greenland, where it is said to be as common as the 

 eider, the king-eider breeds, as it does in Spitzbergen, Novaia Zemlia, and northern 

 Siberia. It is still common on the Lofoten Islands, but is rarely found farther 

 south than the north-western coast of Norway and the latitude of Iceland, 

 although on the Pacific Coast it occasionally occurs so far south as California. 

 Its breeding-area extends farther north than that of the eider. The down, which 

 is as soft as that of the eider, is never collected, the inhabitants of the far north 

 taking the skins of the birds, which, after the larger feathers have been removed, 

 they sew together into garments, these being worn next the body with the downy 

 side inward. King-eiders are captured by the Greenlanders during the moulting- 

 season, when they are unable to fly, the flocks being surrounded, and their 

 members forced to dive until exhausted, when they are easily overtaken and killed 

 with spears or arrows. The king-eider is said to be able to remain under water 

 longer than any other bird, although probably not more than a couple of minutes. 

 Resembling the true eider in general characters, it is somewhat smaller, and distin- 

 guished by the grey crown and the orange tubercle on the beak, which is also 

 orange with a black margin. The plumage of the female is chiefly russet brown. 

 Another familiar bird frequenting the Arctic coasts is the shag 

 (Phalacrocorax graculus), which, although inhabiting the great 

 Siberian lakes, is essentially a maritime species, nesting on cliffs or in caves, and 

 never in trees or bushes. It breeds in the British Isles, and even so far south as 

 Morocco, but is very rare in the Baltic and farther to the east, and does not range 

 west of Iceland. From the ordinary cormorant the shag differs by the gracefully 

 curved crest on the head, as well as by the absence of any white on the glossy 

 green plumage, and the presence of only twelve, in place of fourteen, tail-feathers. 

 Common and Although they are not strictly Arctic in their distribution, certain 



Herring Gulls, members of the gull tribe may be conveniently mentioned in this place. 

 Among them is the common gull (Larus canus), which breeds on the northern coasts 

 of Europe and Asia down to about 53° N. latitude ; and in winter wanders so far 

 south as the Nile valley and the Persian Gulf. The grey back, the white spot on the 

 brown primary quills, the yellow tip to the beak, and the greenish yellow legs are 

 among the distinctive features of this gull. Much larger is its cousin the herring- 



