322 BRITISH BIRDS. 



this valuable commodity, which is thus annually 

 collected in various parts is uncertain. Buffon 

 mentions one particular year, in which the Ice- 

 landic company sold as much as amounted to 

 upwards of eight hundred and fifty pounds sterling. 

 This, however, must be only a small portion of the 

 produce, which is all sold by the hardy natives, to 

 stuff the couches of the pampered citizens of more 

 polished nations. 



The great body of these birds constantly reside 

 in the remote northern, frozen climates, the rigours 

 of which their thick clothing well enables them to 

 bear. They are said to keep together in flocks in 

 the open parts of the sea, diving very deep in quest 

 of shell-fish and other food, with which the bottom 

 is covered; and when they have satisfied them- 

 selves, they retire to the shore, whither they at all 

 times repair for shelter, on the approach of a storm. 

 Other less numerous flocks of the Eiders branch 

 out, colonize, and breed further southward in both 

 Europe and America: they are found on the pro- 



covering her eggs with new down plucked from her breast : this 

 being taken away, the male comes to her assistance, and covers the 

 eggs with his down, which is left till the young are hatched. One 

 female, during the whole time of laying, generally gives half a pound 

 of down. The down from dead birds is accounted of little worth, 

 having lost its elasticity. There are generally exported fifteen 

 hundred or two thousand pounds of down on the company's account, 

 exclusive of what is privately sold. The young ones quit the nest 

 soon after they are hatched, and follow the female, who leads them 

 to the water, where, having taken them on her back, she swims with 

 them a few yards, and then dives, and leaves them floating on the 

 water : in this situation they soon learn to take care of themselves, 

 and are seldom afterwards seen on the land, but live among the 

 rocks, and feed on insects and sea-weed." 



