THE SWIMMERS. 1 63 



their nests. More generally, however, neither birds nor eggs are taken the least care of. Notwith- 

 standing that their flesh is not by any means palatable, these Ducks are continually persecuted and 

 slaughtered, and the consequence is, that in Spitzbergen and other localities where the sale of the 

 Eider-down used to be reckoned by the hundredweight, it is now reckoned only by pounds. 

 Malmgren assures us that it is a rare thing to see young birds in the autumn ; and the bird-catchers 

 are loud in their complaints of a scarcity, for which they have only their own improvidence to blame. 

 In Greenland the diminution, although not quite so conspicuous, is still very great, not more than a 

 thousand pounds being now collected there annually. " Formerly," says Holboell, " the gross quantity 

 of down procured in South Greenland in the course of a year was 5,007 lbs., and North Greenland 

 produced about half that quantity. According to the usual reckoning a dozen nests yield a pound 

 weight of the raw material, so that every year 104,520 birds were not only despoiled of their down 

 but also robbed of their eggs. 



THE TRUE EIDER DUCK, OR ST. CUTHBERT'S DUCK. 



The True Eider Duck, or St. Cuthbert's Duck (Somaieria mollissiina), has the cheeks, 

 chin, back, and breast white, the latter with a reddish tinge. Front and sides of the head black ; 

 nape, to the throat, pea-green ; quills and tail brown, marked on the wings with velvet-black. The 

 eye is reddish brown, the beak greenish yellow, the foot olive-green. The length of this bird is 

 twenty-four inches, the breadth forty ; the length of wing eleven inches, and length of tail three 

 inches and a half. The female is smaller than the male, and her plumage rust-red, marked on the 

 head and neck with longitudinal brown streaks, elsewhere with crescent-shaped black spots ; her 

 under side with deep brown, slightly lined with black. After the breeding season the plumage of the 

 male loses much of its beautiful glistening appearance, both head and neck become blackish grey, 

 more darkly clouded, the shoulders greyish black, and the region of the crop yellowish white, marked 

 with black and rust-brown upon the borders of the individual feathers. It seems probable that this 

 change of plumage is not produced by moulting, but by a gradual change in the colour of the 

 feathers. 



This valuable Duck is met with throughout the northern regions of the globe, its range extending 

 from Jutland to Spitzbergen, and from the west coast of Europe along its northern shores to 

 Greenland and Iceland. It is a constant resident in some of the northern parts of England and 

 Scotland, and has the name of St. Cuthbert's Duck from the numbers that nest in that island. Its 

 most southern breeding-places are upon the Island of Sylt and other small Danish islands in the same 

 latitude, and from thence north it is met with in continually increasing numbers. In Iceland, 

 Greenland, and Norway, it is very abundant, and is preserved with the utmost strictness. Their nests 

 along the coast of Norway, we are told, produce, from the down they yield, on an average, a profit of 

 five pounds a-piece in the year ; so that a small barren rock, frequented by these birds, becomes a 

 very valuable property, and has often been the subject of litigation between Norwegian landholders. 

 Some years ago the Eider Fowl were killed in such numbers that their extinction in that country seemed 

 imminent, but in 1847 the Norwegian Parliament passed a law for their relief, and since that time 

 their pursuers have been obliged to confine themselves to robbing the nests ; the consequence is that 

 these Ducks are now very plentiful, and from the perfect security in which they live have attained a 

 degree of impudent assurance unsurpassed by the London Sparrows, or their own distant connections 

 on the ornamental waters in our parks. In the town of Tromsoe they come to the house doors to be 

 fed, and walk about as if strongly impressed with the consciousness of their own importance. In the 

 northern parts of Great Britain these birds are seen assembling in groups along the shores of the 

 mainland about April, from whence they cross to the adjacent islands early in May. The nest of tins 



