THE WILD DUCK. 299 



form itself a cavity to lay in, the approach of which 

 it carefully shelters ; lines it first with a layer of clay 

 and grass, then with moss, then with feathers or 

 down. The eider duck, which is about twice as large 

 as the common duck, makes her nest among the 

 rocks or plants of the sea-shore ; where, after lining 

 the nest like others of the species, she will add to it 

 a luxurious covering, plucked from the soft inner 

 down of her own breast. This valuable tapestry- 

 work the natives hunt for, and carry away with nest 

 and eggs; when the indefatigable bird will imme- 

 diately set about another, of which she is again 

 robbed : the third time she still builds, but her eider 

 down is exhausted, and the drake supplies the loss with 

 his own. If this also is carried away, both birds for- 

 sake the place, and breed there no more. We find 

 the flesh of those that migrate to us, not nearly so 

 high flavoured as those that breed here. The wild 

 duck at your table that eats loose, rancid, and fishy, 

 you may assuredly take for a foreign traveller, whose 

 food, by the way of waters, was fish. They love to 

 choose a lake in the neighbourhood of woods, with a 

 marsh at one side ; and if a couple of them once 

 alight, hundreds, allured by the constant call peculiar 

 to this tribe, will flock to the same spot. The 

 windpipe of the duck, where it begins to enter 

 the lungs, opens into a kind of bony cavity, where 

 the sound is reflected, as in a great musical in- 

 strument. Wild ducks generally choose that part 

 of the lake where they are inaccessible to the 



