THE AMERICAN EIDER 371 
Bill, eyes and feet asin the male. Length from 
eighteen to twenty inches; extent about thirty 
inches. 
THE AMERICAN EIDER. 
(Somateria dresseri.) 
This dweller of the cold north visits our 
coasts only during the severest winter weather. 
Even then it keeps to its feeding grounds 
among the outer islands and in the open sea, 
hence it is called the ‘‘Sea Duck,’’ and by this 
title is best known to our gunners. 
Beneath the feathers the bird is covered with 
a thick coat of down, (the eider-down of com- 
merce, or some of it), which in the regions 
where they breed is gathered from the nests as 
it is supplied by the birds themselves. They 
will even submit to being robbed twice, it is said, 
but decline to furnish more if the spoiler makes 
a third descent, then deserting the nest. The 
birds use this down as a lining for the nests and 
as a covering for the eggs, pulling the thick, 
blanket-like mass over their treasures when 
they leave them for a time to feed. In Ice- 
land the people cut shallow holes in the turfy 
edges near the sea, all around their homes, even 
