NOTES BY THE EDITOK. 



THE BIED-BEEGS OF LAPLAND. 



For other pictures of Arctic Natural History the reader may profitably 

 consult the following works : — 



CoUett, E. Bird Life in Arctic Norway. Trans, by A. H. Cocks (London, 



1894). 

 Nordenskiold, A. E. The Voyage of the " Vega" Round Asia and Europe, 



with a Historical Eeview of Previous Journeys along the North Coast 



of the Old World (Trans, by A. Leslie, 2 vols., London, 1881). 

 Gilder, W. H. Ice-Pack and Tundra, an Account of the Search for the 



Jeanette, and a Sledge Journey through Siberia (8vo, London, 1883. 



Chiefly personal, not scientific). 

 Hovgaard, A. Nordendciold's Voyage Round Asia and Europe, a Popular 



Account of the North-east Passage of the Vega, 1878-80 (Trans, by 



H. L. Brsekstad, 8vo, London, 1882). 

 Pennant's Arctic Zoology (1785). 



Note 1. p. 38. — Dense masses offish. 



I have consulted a Scandinavian pisciculturist, who, while not corro- 

 borating the occurrence of such vast multitudes, admitted the periodic 

 appearance of dense local swarms, such as are sometimes seen in the lochs 

 in the west of Scotland. 



Note 2, p. 45. — The female eider-duck plucking the male. 



The popular story of the male eider being made to furnish down for 

 the nest, after the mother-bird's supply is exhausted, must, we fear, be 

 regarded as a misstatement. See Newton's Dictiona/ry of Birds (London, 

 1893), and other authoritative works on ornithology. Perhaps the story 

 has some basis in the fact that for a short time after the breeding season 

 the males undergo a change of plumage, becoming less decorative and 

 more like the females. 



Note 3, p. 48. — Economic value of eider-down. 



According to Stejneger, each nest yields about an ounce and a third. 

 From Greenland and Iceland alone, six thousand pounds, or the contents 

 of seventy-two thousand nests, are yearly exported. Nordenskiold notes 

 that the quantity of eider-down brought from the polar lands to Tromsoe 



