EIDER DUCK. 



were, for some particular reason, shut up during 

 several hours. On the door of the coop being 

 opened, they rushed out, threw themselves into a 

 single rank and file, and marched with rather a 

 quick step, three or four times around a certain 

 space, constantly bowing their heads to the ground, 

 then elevating them and fluttering their wings : the 

 ceremony finished, they quickly adjourned to the 

 water. I have laughed a thousand times at the 

 conceit with which my boyish imagination was im- 

 pressed, namely, that the act which I had witnessed, 

 was nothing less than a duckish thanksgiving for 

 deliverance. 



The social and conversing qualities of ducks, in- 

 deed, receive a degree of countenance from the re- 

 lations of ornithologists. The habitudes of the 

 EIDER ducks, so valuable for their down, which 

 frequent the lakes of northern countries, are thus 

 described: the ducks, flying in the air, are lured 

 down from the heights by the loud voice of the 

 mallard below, which nature seems to have fur- 

 nished with powerful organs for vociferation. To 

 this call all stragglers resort, and in a short time, a 

 lake, before naked, is completely black with water- 

 fowl. There they huddle together, extremely busy 

 and very loud. Upon what business they are thus 

 incessantly employed all day, is not easy to guess 

 by us, who understand not their language. There 

 appears no food for them in the midst of the lake, 

 where they thus sit and cabal, nor does any action 

 of theirs indicate a search of food: nor can court- 

 ship be the object, for which the season has not 



