EIDER DUCK. 209 



for softness, warmth, lightness, and elasticity, surpasses 

 that of all other ducks. The quantity found in one nest 

 more than filled the crown of a hat, yet weighed no 

 more than three quarters of an ounce;* and it is asserted 

 that three pounds of this down may he compressed into 

 a space scarce bigger than a man's fist, yet is afterwards 

 so dilatable as to till a quilt five feet square, f 



The native regions of the eider duck extend from 45 

 north to the highest latitudes yet discovered, both in 

 Europe and America. Solitary rocky shores and islands 

 are their favourite haunts. Some wandering pairs have 

 been known to breed on the rocky islands beyond 

 Portland in the district of Maine, which is perhaps the 

 most southern extent of their breeding place. In England 

 the Fern Isles, on the coast of Northumberland, are 

 annually visited by a few of these birds, being the only 

 place in South Britain where they are known to breed. 

 They occur again in some of the Western Isles of 

 Scotland. Greenland and Iceland abound with them, 

 and here, in particular places, their nests are crowded 

 so close together that a person can scarcely walk without 

 treading on them. The natives of those countries know 

 the value of the down, and carry on a regular system 

 of plunder both of it and also of the eggs. The nest is 

 generally formed outwardly of drift grass, dry sea weed, 

 and such like materials, the inside composed of a large 

 quantity of down plucked from the breast of the female ; 

 in this soft elastic bed she deposits five eggs, extremely 

 smooth and glossy, of a pale olive colour ; they are also 

 warmly covered with the same kind of down. When 

 the whole number is laid, they are taken away by the 

 natives, and also the down with which the nest is lined, 

 together with that which covers the eggs. The female 

 once more strips her breast of the remaining down, and 

 lays a second time ; even this, with the eggs, is generally 

 taken away, and it is said that the male in this extremity 

 furnishes the third quantity of down from his own 

 breast ; but if the cruel robbery he a third time repeated, 



* PENXANT. f Salem. Ornith. p. 416. 



VOL. III. O 



