TRAFFIC IN EGGS OF RARE BIRDS. 201 



Although so wary and difficult of approach 

 when occasionally met with in the winter by the 

 wildfowl shooter, yet the tameness of the eider 

 during incubation is so great that it will fre- 

 quently suffer itself to be lifted off the nest, and 

 in certain parts of Greenland, Spitzbergen, and 

 Iceland, these are so crowded together that it is 

 difficult for the intruder to avoid crushing their 

 contents under his feet. The birds however 

 would appear to be conscious of their value to 

 man : indeed in certain situations they have been 

 known to select the ruins of old buildings as the 

 site of their domiciles ; and although in all those 

 parts of the temperate and frigid zones where 

 they are established during the breeding season, a 

 systematic plunder is carried on every day, yet 

 they appear to be under no apprehension for their 

 personal safety. The fable of the goose that laid 

 the golden eggs would indeed be realized if the 

 bird itself were to be killed ; but the natives are 

 wiser in their generation than the clown in jEsop ; 

 for it is a singular fact that the down on the 

 breast of a dead eider almost instantly loses its 

 elasticity and value. 



But the traffic in eggs, as an article of food, is 

 after all limited to comparatively few kinds of 

 birds. The high price which is given by amateur 

 collectors has tended far more to reduce the num- 



K 5 



