ten in the same nest, the produce of two birds, which sit very 

 amicably together. I brought home the down of one that had 

 begun to sit, which was so thoroughly mixed with small pieces 

 of the stalks of dry grass, that it must have been done pur- 

 posely by the bii'd, probably to keep it better together, and 

 would require a great time in picking it clean. It weighed 

 one ounce and five-eighths, and when expanded filled my hat, 

 though it was easily compressed within the hand. This is, 

 liowever, no criterion of the quantity a nest may sometimes 

 produce, as the birds, I believe, continue to increase it till the 

 eggs are hatched ; with this they are carefully covered when- 

 ever the old bird leaves them, for what purpose it is not easy 

 to determine. Mr. Rennie says, " to keep them warm till her 

 return,"" but I should be led much rather to attribute it to 

 their wish of concealment, because in all the nests that I exa- 

 mined, containing one, two, or three eggs, upon which they 

 had not then begun to sit, and in which there was conse- 

 quently no warmth to lose, they were carefully covered with 

 the surrounding herbage, pulled for the purpose in lieu of 

 down, which, I suspect, is not plucked till the full number of 

 eggs is laid. 



The Eider Ducks breed also on the Western Isles of Scot- 

 land, and in such numbers in Iceland, that their down is 

 made an article of commerce. Their nests are robbed by the 

 natives two or three times successively, as long as the poor birds 

 have any down left with which to line them, and when driven 

 to extremity, it is said that the male supplies the deficiency. 

 Von Troil states the quantity given by each Duck to be about 

 half a pound during the season. This, however, appears to be 

 a large estimate, when compared with the quantity afforded 

 by those that breed upon our own coast, supposing the birds 

 capable of giving the same quantity twice more : it may, 

 however, be partly the eflfect of climate, animals being more 

 thickly clothed in the northern regions. I shot one of the 

 females from the nest, Avhich I brought away, and found that 



