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The following account of the Eider Duck in Scandinavia is taken from the well-known work 

 on the Game-birds and Wild-fowl of Norway, by Mr. L. Lloyd : — 



" The Eider Duck is very common in the Baltic, and on all the western coasts of Scandinavia, 

 from Scania to the North Cape, but more especially on certain islands called Fugel-Vaas, or bird- 

 preserves, on the north-west coast of Norway, where it is protected, which, until the past year or 

 two, has not been the case elsewhere in the Peninsula, and where the eggs and down are only 

 taken in very moderate quantities. 



" Ekstrom seems to think there are two kinds of Eider, namely the Common and the 

 so-called Smal-nabbad, or Narrow-billed Eider, spoken of by Brehm ; and he is led to this 

 conclusion from what Fabricius says of the habits of the Eider found on the coasts of Iceland, 

 which would appear to differ materially from those of that bird frequenting the eastern 

 ' Skargard ' of Sweden. 



" It is, I believe, a commonly received opinion that the Eider in a wild state confines itself 

 altogether to the ocean ; but this would not seem always to be the case ; for when, during the 

 present autumn, I was staying with M. Stromberg at Sjobohl, near Falkenberg, on the south- 

 west coast of Sweden, I was assured by him that the Eider has been repeatedly shot in Eamsjon, 

 a freshwater lake, now partially drained, in the immediate vicinity of his house, and at a distance, 

 as the Crow flies, of some three (English) miles from the sea. He also assured me that the nest 

 of this bird has not unfrequently been met with by himself and others in the extensive peat-bogs 

 surrounding the lake. 



" Eamsjon, it should be remarked, lies some ten to twelve feet above the level of the sea, with 

 which (excepting by means of a canal recently cut to carry off its superfluous waters) it has no 

 communication whatever. Its waters, nevertheless, are said to be in some degree brackish ; and 

 when very low a slight crust of salt, or of a substance resembling it, is observable on such parts 

 of the bottom of the lake as are left dry. The Eider, like the AVild Swan and the Long-tailed 

 Hareld, does not seem in any way affected by cold, however great it may be, and, unless the sea is 

 entirely frozen over, remains on the coast during the whole winter. Even should it be driven 

 thence by the ice, it is not supposed to remove to any considerable distance ; for as soon as 

 the frost breaks up it immediately returns to its old haunts. Many winter in the Danish seas, 

 where the climate is somewhat less severe. I myself on one occasion saw myriads of these birds 

 about Christmas time in the Little Belt, or that separating Jutland from the island of Funen. 



" During the winter the Eiders keep together in very large flocks, composed as well of males 

 as females, and at that time are exceedingly shy. Towards the spring they separate in pairs, and in 

 April were found in our ' Skargard ' for the purpose of breeding. Until the female has deposited 

 her eggs, the male is always in her company ; but when incubation begins the males congregate, 

 and one sees them in numbers floating, as it were, in the vicinity of the rocky islets where then- 

 mates are sitting. Subsequently, and when they begin to moult, which is in June, they keep 

 more out at sea, and are then very difficult of approach. 



" The plumage of the old male Eider varies much, according to the season of the year. 

 Towards the autumn he loses his brilliant dress, and becomes in great part black, and is, in fact, 

 so altered in appearance as to be hardly recognizable. The female, on the contrary, retains her 

 brown feathers all the year round, and little difference in plumage is observable in her. 



