Food. 
340 NATATORES. SOMATERIA. EIDER 
riving at it in any other way ; and indeed, the keeper of one 
of the lighthouses (upon the impending rock close to which 
an Eider Duck, for many seasons, had her nest, and hatched 
her young) assured me, that he had seen the bird engaged in 
this interesting duty. ‘The down of the Eider is remarka- 
bly light and elastic, not more so perhaps than that of its 
congener the King Eider, the Scoter, and some others of the 
oceanic Anatid ; but as it is procured in greater quantity 
from this species, the whole imported from Iceland and other 
northern countries (though mixed with that of several others) 
is still sold under the denomination of Hider down. From 
the nest of two or three of these birds, I have frequently 
procured as much down as would fill a middling-sized_pil- 
low, though the same, when compressed, was not above two 
handfuls, and did not weigh above an ounce. As plucked 
from the living bird, it is much more elastic than when taken 
from the body after death,—a fact confirmative of what I 
have formerly advanced, viz. that the plumage is not mere 
inert matter, as believed by Monracu and others, but is en- 
dowed with a kind of living principle, and influenced by the 
state and condition of the bird. In Iceland, Greenland, &c. 
where the Eider down forms a great branch of their com- 
merce, and where the birds breed in great numbers near to 
each other, the natives wait anxiously for the event. The 
first production of eggs, together with the down, is taken 
from them, but the next they are allowed to incubate, and 
rear the young, though a part of the down is from time to 
time removed, the female continuing to supply it as long as 
any remains upon the lower part of her body.—The food of 
the Eider consists of various species of shell-fish, crustaceous 
animals, and the roes of these and fishes. Such as I have 
dissected were generally filled with the triturated remains of 
mytili, tellinae, &c.; and twice I found the subjects gorged 
with the spawn of fish. They dive for their food like the 
Scoters, remaining for a long time submerged, and often in 
water of six or eight fathomsdeep. They also fly with great 
