248 DUCKS, GEESE, SWANS, AND PELICANS. 



lower part of the neck is cream-coloured. The black parts from 

 their glossiness are conspicuous, while the white look soiled ; the 

 head and back are also shaded with a green tint. 



The Eider Duck is found in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, 

 occurring in diminished numbers in the latter. In the Outer 

 Hebrides it has many breeding-places, and some nests occur on 

 the Bass Eock, and on the Farn Islands, off the coast of Northum- 

 berland, where the eggs have been found in the month of June. 

 The nest is made in some hollow in the turf, and is composed 

 of sea-weed and dried grass, mixed with such marine plants as 

 Plantago maritima and Coronopsis. The eggs, which vary in 

 number, are of a longish oval shape, smooth and glossy, and 

 of a pale greenish grey. When they have been laid, the female is 

 said to pluck the down from her breast and cover them over with 

 it. This down, when shaken out, will occupy a space of nine or 

 ten inches. This peculiar quality of the down, however, caused 

 by its elastic character, belongs to all the Anatidae, and probably 

 not less so to the Anserinse. 



The principal home of the Eider Duck is on the bleak and 

 frozen sea-coasts of Northern Europe, and its food, which is ob- 

 tained by diving, is the bivalve mollusca ; also Crustacea, fishes, 

 and fish-spawn, together with aquatic worms. It makes its nest 

 on rocks washed by the sea. Sometimes two female birds lay 

 in the same nest, which then contains from nine to ten eggs, 

 for each of them lays from four to six. The nest is roughly 

 built with sea-weed, but it is lined inside with a thick layer 

 of the bird's own down. " The Eider Ducks," as we learn from 

 Willoughby, " build themselves nests on the rocks, and lay good 

 store of very savoury and well- tasted eggs ; for the getting of 

 which the neighbouring people let themselves down by ropes 

 dangerously enough, and with the same labour gather the fea- 

 thers, or eider-dun, our people call them, which are very soft 

 and fit to stuff beds and quilts ; for in a small quantity they dilate 

 themselves much, being very springy, and warm the body above 

 any others. These birds are wont at set times to moult their 

 feathers, enriching the fowlers with this desirable merchandise." 

 " When its young are hatched/ ' adds the English naturalist, " it 

 takes them out to sea, and never looks at land till next breeding- 

 time, nor is seen anywhere about our coasts." 



