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8 



" Bishop Pontoppidan gives a somewhat curious account of the proceedings of the Eider 

 during the breeding-season : — ' If the first five eggs are stole away,' he says, ' then the bird 

 lays again, but only three eggs, and in another nest ; if these are lost, then she lays one more. 

 Four weeks the mother sits alone on the eggs, and the cock stands watching underneath in the 

 water, so that if any human creature or beast of prey approaches he gives her notice by crying 

 Hu, Hu; and then she covers her eggs with moss and down, which he keeps ready prepared, 

 and comes down to her mate in the water. But he does not receive her very kindly ; and if her 

 eggs are lost by any accident, he gives her many blows with his wings, which she must take 

 patiently ; and after this he entirely deserts her, and she is obliged to join the flock of her kind 

 under the same disgrace.' 



" It is generally supposed that so soon as the young ones are out of the shell the mother 

 conducts them to the water ; some say, however, that they remain in the nest twenty-four hours 

 afterwards, and until they have acquired strength. But this I doubt, considering that the delay, 

 if there be any, arises from the eggs not being all hatched, as is frequently the case, at one and 

 the same time. From the considerable elevation at which the nest is occasionally placed, and 

 the broken nature of the ground, it is hard to conceive how she ever gets them down to the 

 water, it being quite certain that without aid of some kind they could never of themselves find 

 their way there ; but how their transit is effected appears somewhat of a mystery. I was assured, 

 however, by a very respectable man, the keeper of the lighthouse at Winga, that he himself had 

 often seen the old bird thus occupied. ' She threw the chicks over her neck, as a Fox would a 

 Goose,' such were his very words, ' and thus carried them to their own element.' 



" It is generally believed in Scandinavia that when her progeny are in jeopardy, the mother, 

 as is said of the Merganser, takes them on her back and, either swimming or diving, thus conveys 

 them to a place of security ; but this is probably a fallacy. It is true that when the body of the 

 old bird is submerged, which is always the case when danger threatens, and the brood are 

 collected about her, it looks as if they were in the situation described ; but in reality, I take it, 

 they are in the act of swimming, and not resting on her. If such were the case, they must 

 of necessity hold fast by their bills, which they clearly never do, their heads being always 

 quite erect. 



" The Eider Duck is readily domesticated, as I can state from experience, having myself reared 

 several. When in confinement they feed freely on worms, shell-fish, and the like, on almost 

 every thing, in short, that is given to them. 



" In parts of Norway the down of the Eider forms a valuable article of commerce. That 

 obtained from the nest, which is plucked by the bird itself from her own body, is reported to be 

 very superior to that from the dead bird. If taken from the latter, it should be in the winter, 

 or early spring ; for in the summer and autumn, when the Eider moults, the down becomes so 

 mixed up with blood-feathers as to be of little worth. It is stated by English naturalists, I 

 observe, that each Eider's nest produces half a pound of down ! If several birds be contributors 

 to the same nest, this, by possibility, is the case ; but individually it can hardly be ; for the 

 utmost quantity we could ever obtain from any one bird in full plumage little exceeded half 

 an ounce. 



" Though Scandinavia sends some little Eider-down to market, yet Iceland and Greenland, 



