EIDER DUCK. 345 



they swam about from one island to another with great ease. Before their 

 moulting had commenced, or fully a month earlier, these male birds, we 

 observed, flew in long lines from place to place around the outermost 

 islands every morning and evening, thus securing themselves from their 

 enemies, and roosted in numbers close together on some particular rock 

 difficult to be approached by boats, where they remained during the short 

 night. By the 1st of August scarcely an Eider Duck was to be seen on 

 the coast of Labrador. The young were then able to fly, the old birds 

 had nearly completed their moult, and all were moving southward. 



Having now afforded you some idea of the migrations and general 

 habits of this interesting bird from spring to the close of the short sum- 

 mer of the desolate regions of Labrador, I proceed, with my journals be- 

 fore me, and my memory refreshed by reading my notes, to furnish you 

 with such details as may perhaps induce you to study its habits in other 

 parts of the world. 



The Eider Duck generally arrives on the coasts of Newfoundland and 

 Labrador about the 1st of May, nearly a fortnight before the waters of 

 the Gulf of St Lawrence are freed from ice. None are seen there during 

 winter, and their first appearance is looked upon with pleasure by the few 

 residents as an assurance of the commencement of the summer season. 

 At this period they are seen passing in long files not many feet above the 

 ice or the surface of the water, along the main shores, and around the 

 inner bays or islands, as if in search of the places where they had for- 

 merly nestled, or where they had been hatched. All the birds appear to 

 be paired, and in perfect plumage. After a few days, during which they 

 rest themselves on the shores fronting the south, most of them remove to 

 the islands that border the coast, at distances varying from hajf a mile to 

 five or six miles. The rest seek for places in which to form their nests, 

 along the craggy shores, or by the borders of the stunted fir woods not 

 far from the water, a few proceeding as far as about a mile into the in- 

 terior. They are now seen only in pairs, and they soon form their nests. 

 I have never had an opportunity of observing their courtships, nor have 

 I received any account of them worthy of particular notice. 



In Labrador, the Eider Ducks begin to form their nests about the 

 last week of May. Some resort to islands scantily furnished with grass, 

 near the tufts of which they construct their nests ; others form them be- 

 neath the spreading boughs of the stunted firs, and in such places, five, 

 six, or even eight are sometimes found beneatli a single bush. Many are 



