104 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.— CLASS II. AVES. 
backs retreat to its confluence with the bay; occasionally frequenting air- 
holes in the ice, which are sometimes made for the purpose, immediately 
above their favorite grass, to entice them within gunshot of the hut or bush, 
gunner lies con- 
which is usually fixed at a proper distance, and where the 
cealed, ready to take advantage of their distress. A Mr. Hill, who lives 
near James River, at a place called Herring Creck, informs me that, one 
severe winter, he and another person broke a hole in the ice, about twenty 
by forty feet, immediately over a shoal of grass, and took their stand on the 
shore in a hut of brash, each having three guns well loaded with large shot. 
The ducks, which were flying up and down the river, in great extremity, 
soon crowded to this place, so that the whole open space was not only coy- 
ered with them, but vast numbers stood on the ice around it. They had 
three rounds, firing both at once, and picked up eighty-eight Canvas-backs, 
and might have collected more, had they been able to get to the extremity 
of the ice after the wounded ones. In the severe winter of 1779-80, the 
grass, on the roots of which these birds feed, was almost wholly destroyed 
in James River. In the month of January the wind continued to blow 
fron W.N.W. for twenty-one days, which caused such low tides in the 
river that the grass froze to the ice everywhere; and a thaw coming on 
suddenly, the whole was raised by the roots, and carried off by the freshet. 
The next winter a few cf these ducks were seen, but they soon went away 
again, and for many years after they continued to be scarce; and, even 
to the present day, in the opinion of my informant, have never been so 
plenty as before.” 
Of the Eider Duck and its habits, the following account will give a good 
idea 7 — 
“Its native country extends from about 45° north to the highest arctic 
latitudes hitherto explored, both in Europe and America, —the Farn Isles, 
off the coast of Northumberland, and the rocky islets beyond Portland, in 
the district of Maine, being the southern boundary of their breeding-places ; 
but they are only very plentiful in Behrine’s Straits, Labrador, Greenland, 
Teeland, and other arctic regions. Selby, however, thinks that they might 
be greatly increased in the Farn Islands by proper attention. 
“According to M. T. Brunnich, who wrote an express treatise on the 
natural history of the Eider Duck, their first object, after pairing, is to pro- 
cure a suitable place for their nest, preferring the shelter of a juniper bush, 
where it can be had, and where there is no juniper, contenting themselves 
with tufts of sea-grass, bundles of sea-weed cast up by the tide, the crevices 
of rocks, or any hollow place which they can find. Some of the Icelandic 
proprietors of breeding-grounds, in order to accommodate them, cut out 
holes in rows on the smooth, sloping banks, where they would not otherwise 
