THE EIDER DUCK. 105 
build, but of which they gladly take possession when thus scooped out. It 
is not a little remarkable that, like several other sea-birds, they almost always 
select small islands, their nests being seldom, if ever, found on the shores 
of the mainland, or even of a large island. The Icelanders are so weil 
aware of this, that they have expended a great deal of labor in actually 
forming islands, by separating from the main island certain promontories 
joined to it by narrow isthmuses. 
“Both the male and the female Eider Ducks work in concert in building 
their nest, laying a rather coarse foundation of drift grass, dry tangle, and 
sea-weed, which is collected in some quantity. Upon this rough mattress 
the female Eider spreads a bed of the finest down, plucked from her own 
breast, and by no means sparingly, but, as Brunnich informs us, heaping it 
up, so as to form a thick, puffed roll quite round the nest. When she is 
compelled to go in quest of food, after beginning to sit, she carefully turns 
this marginal roll of down oyer the eggs to keep them warm till her return. 
Martens says she mixes the down with moss, but, as this is not recorded by 
any other observer, we think it is not a little doubtful, particularly as in the 
places chosen for nestling she would find it no easy matter to procure moss. 
It is worthy of remark that, though the Eider Duck lays only five or six 
eggs, ‘it is not uncommon to find more than even ten and upwards in the 
same nest occupied by two females which live together in concord.’ 
“The quantity of down in each nest is said, by Van Troil, to be about 
half a pound, which, by cleaning, is reduced one half. By Pennant, who 
examined the Kider’s nest in the Farn Islands, off Northumberland, it ts 
only estimated, when cleaned, at three quarters of an ounce, and this was 
so elastic as to fill the crown of the largest hat. The difference of quantity 
in these two accounts, theoretically ascribed by the translators of Buffon to 
difference of climate, may have arisen from the one being the first, and the 
other the second or third nest of the mother duck; for if the first nest be 
plundered of its down, though she immediately builds a second, she cannot 
furnish it with the same quantity as before; and, if forced to build a third 
time, having then stripped her breast of all she could spare, the male is said 
to furnish what is wanting, which is recognized as being considerably whiter 
than the female’s. When the nest is not robbed, it is said that he furnishes 
none. 
“The down taken from the nests becomes a valuable article of commerce, 
being sold, when cleaned, for three rix-dollars (twelve shillings) a pound. In 
1750, the Icelandic company sold down amounting in value to about 8507., 
besides what was sent directly to Gluckstadt. Little or none of it is used 
in the country where it is found. In that rough climate, as Buffon remarks, 
the hardy hunter, clothed in a bearskin cloak, enjoys in his solitary hut a 
