354 



FLAMINGOES, DUCKS, AND SCREAMERS. 



HabitSc 



All the eiders are exclusively dwellers on rocky coasts, where 

 they subsist mainly on molluscs and crustaceans ; and while they are 

 birds of slow and heavy, although powerful flight, and are at the same time 

 clumsy walkers on land, in the sea, which is their true home, they are most expert 

 divers and swimmers. Iceland and the Fam Islands are well-known breeding- 

 resorts of the common eider ; and the following account of a colony on a small 



EIDEH-DUCKS AND NEST (/j Uat. size). 



island near the former locality is taken from Mr. C. W. Sheppard. On landing, 

 that observer writes, " the ducks and their nests were everywhere. Great brown 

 ducks sat upon their nests in masses, and at every step started from under our 

 feet. It was with difficulty we avoided treading on some of the nests. On the 

 coast of the opposite shore was a wall built of large stones, just above the high- 

 water level, about 3 feet in height, and of considerable thickness. At the bottom, 

 on both sides of it, alternate stones had been left out, so as to form a series of 



