THE BIRD-BERGS OF LAPLAND 41 



Sylt. Its plumage is a faithful mirror of the northern sea. Black 

 and red, ash-gray, ice-green, white, brown, and yellow are the colours 

 harmoniously blended in it. The eider-duck proper is the least 

 beautiful species, but it is nevertheless a handsome bird. The neck 

 and back, a band over the wings, and a spot on the sides of the 

 body are white as the crests of the waves; throat and crop have a 

 white ground faintly flushed with rose-colour as though the glow 

 of the midnight sun had been caught there; a belt on the cheeks 

 is delicate green like the ice of the glacier; breast and belly, wings 

 and tail, the lower part of the back and the rump are black as the 

 depths of the sea itself. This splendour belongs only to the male; 

 the female, like all ducks, wears a more modest yet not less pleas- 

 ing garb, which I may call a house-dress. The prevailing rust- 

 coloured ground, shading more or less into brown, is marked with 

 longitudinal and transverse spots, lines and spirals, with a beauty 

 and variety that words cannot adequately describe. 



No other species of duck is so thoroughly a child of the sea as 

 the eider-duck; no species waddles more clumsily on land, or flies 

 less gracefully, but none swims more rapidly or dives more deftly 

 and deeply. In search of food it sinks fully fifty yards below the 

 surface of the sea, and is said to be able to remain five minutes 

 an extraordinarily long time under water. Before the beginning 

 of the brooding season it does not leave the open sea at all, or 

 does so very rarely: following a whim rather than driven by 

 necessity. Towards the end of winter the flocks in which they 

 congregate break up into pairs, and only those males who have not 

 succeeded in securing mates swim about in little groups. Between 

 two mates the most perfect unanimity reigns. One will, undoubt- 

 edly that of the duck, determines the actions of both. If she rises 

 from the surface of the water to fly for a hundred yards through 

 the air, the drake follows her; if she dives into the sea, he dis- 

 appears directly afterwards; wherever she turns he follows faith- 

 fully; whatever she does seems to express his wishes. The pair 

 still live out on the sea, though only where the depth is not greater 

 than twenty-five fathoms, and where edible mussels and other 

 bivalves are found in rich abundance on the rocks and the sea- 



