Dec. 1885.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



170 



fliiirraing in tlic higliest degree, and their peculiar 

 beauty approves itself when the sun is resting 

 below the horizon at midnight, and only a breath 

 of twilight sweeps over the masses overflowed by 

 tlie water. One might then well believe himself 

 in a scene of enchantment. 



The farther the traveler advances beyond the 

 polar circle toward the north, the larger and more 

 comfortable are the houses, while in the south, 

 where the population is denser, they are of 

 .'lighter construction. Yet no furrow is turned, 

 no scythe is swung there ; the sea is the field from 

 which man derives his living. At the parting of 

 day and night, when the sun goes away for 

 months, the men sail recklessly in their boats and 

 canoes to their anchoring places far up in the 

 north, and their spacious houses are quickly filled 

 with guests. Obeying the resistless drift, come 

 hosts of fishes out of the deepest deeps of the sea, 

 so that the net cast for them mocks the strength 

 of the Herculean men, or is torn under the bur- 

 den. The throng of the foolish fish is so dense 

 that an oar pushed perpendicularly through it re- 

 mains upright. Millions are caught, and millions 

 go on, so that there is no sign of a decrease in the 

 number. This migration of the fishes reaches its 

 extreme point at about Christmas time. No 

 pencil could reproduce the picture which the 

 polar sea exhibits at this season. Hundreds of 

 craft, manned with stalwart fishers, are being in- 

 cessantly filled with speckled prey; as fur as the 

 eye can reach, nothing but fish, which crowd 

 and press upon one another to get to the breeding 

 place; the massive glaciers and rock-built shores 

 in the background, and, as illuminants to the 

 scene, the ghostly moon and the crackling north- 

 ern lights. All this lime there is also twilight 

 on the southern horizon, and toward February a 

 narrow strip of the sun shows iiself again, gradu- 

 ally to rise higher. With the first appearance of 

 day the fishes begin to sink slowly in the fathom- 

 less depths. As the sky becomes brighter, the 

 sea and its bays become more quiet. The boats 

 cease to glide over the surface of the wafers, the 

 fishermen go home with their spoil, and the 

 northern world lies silent, l^asking in the beams 

 of the returning sun. But this quiet only lasts 

 for a few weeks, when new noisy, swarming 

 hosts come to the islands. They are the birds, 

 which come up from the sea to the laud. It is a 

 deeply poetic trait in the lives of these creatures 

 that only two causes determine them to .seek terra 

 frma — the power of love and the approach of 

 death. The .sea bird, weather proof, lives on the 

 sea. He hunts his food by diving, swinging over 

 the billows, and sleeps and dreams with his head 

 hidden under his wings. But there comes a time 



when the earlier sunbeams kiss the northern isl- 

 ands ; then he is mightily moved in his soul, and 

 hastens to the coast to celebrate there his anmial 

 wedding. And, when he feels that death is near, 

 lie swims with his feeble limbs back to the place 

 of his birth, there to close his life. It is the same 

 feeling that inspires in aged men that ardent de- 

 sire to return to their old home to die and be 

 buried there. To the naturalist who goes to the 

 north to study the ways of the birds this trait in 

 their character is of peculiar interest. Of one of 

 the tribes of these colonists of the northern bird 

 mountain I nuisl make particular mention. It is 

 the Eider Duck, the producer of down. It be- 

 longs to the family of the Ducks, imd forms, so far 

 as bodily stature is concerned, one of the largest 

 species of the group. The plumage of the male 

 is handsome and brilliant. In it black, red, 

 ashen-gray, ice-green, white, brown, and yellow 

 are mingled with splendid effect. Ilis head and 

 back are snow white, his neck is rose red, and the 

 lower part of his body is deep black. The female 

 is less richly colored, in a modest gaj-ment 

 adorned with gray and black spots and stripes. 

 The Eider Duck is a real sea bird, and is excelled 

 by none of its fellows in diving, while no other 

 bird is more awkward in flying and helpless in 

 walking. On the ground it moves with a toil- 

 simie waddle, stumbles and falls flat ; and it 

 greatly prefers the fluid element to the solid land. 

 The birds generally live during the Winter in 

 large flocks on the open sea, and feed themselves 

 with shell fish which they bring up from the bot- 

 tom. But, as soon as the Spring sun begins to 

 shine over the waves, the drake feels newly 

 awakened the old love in his heart for his mate, 

 and he renews his wooing. One pair after an- 

 other leave the host and swim steadily toward 

 the land. This wedding journey toward the 

 breeding place offers a pretty picture of conjugal 

 life. From the moment when the pair have 

 found one another again there rules only one 

 will, that of the Duck, to which the male yields 

 fidly and without wavering. Quite noticeable 

 are his courteous attention and tenderness toward 

 his spouse, which Madame Duck takes, as matters 

 of course, in calm dignity. She steadily makes 

 toward the shore, and finally lands, hardly heed- 

 ing the cautions of her mate, whose instinct, 

 sharpened by the experiences of former journeys 

 he may have made, prompts him to beware of 

 the devices of men. Loyally he waddles into the 

 country, and follows her in her interminable 

 tours while she is looking for a suitable nesting 

 place. Madame shows an exceedingly dainty 

 taste during her explorations, carefully examin- 

 ing every bush, shrub, stone, and protected spot, 



