THE EIDER-DUCK AND ITS NEST. lOI 



built, neat house. About them lounged several Esqui- 

 maux dogs. We dredged in ten fathoms on a rocky 

 bottom, not, however, bringing up any novelties, though 

 the animals were all of purely arctic types. 



June 14 was spent in egging and in collecting insects. 

 Mr. Bradford secured the services of a Frenchman and 

 his sail-boat, and with several others of the party landed 

 on three islands situated four or five miles away. We 

 found eight nests and twenty-five eggs of the eider- 

 duck, with those of the murre or guillemot and auk, 

 besides three gull's eggs, probably those of the saddle- 

 back. We also found a nest of the red loon : it was 

 situated on the edge of a small pond. The nest, partly 

 submerged, was fourteen inches in diameter and in size 

 and appearance like the gulls' nests, though the latter 

 were placed in dryer localities. The eider-ducks' nests 

 were abundant, as were those of the razor-billed auks, 

 but those of the murres were even less common. The 

 eider-ducks ten years ago were extremely abundant, but 

 the unremitting attacks upon their nests by " eggers " 

 has resulted in the partial extinction of this valuable and 

 interesting bird. All the eiders were busy in making 

 their nests and in laying their eggs. The old or com- 

 pleted nests contained a great mass of down, and were 

 12 to 15 inches in outside diameter, the downy mass in 

 which the eggs sank being five or six inches high ; the 

 newer nests were without down ; there were about five 

 eggs to a nest. Most of the nests which we saw were 

 built on low land, near pools and not far from the sea- 

 water, in a dense thicket of dwarf spruce trees, called 

 " tucking-bush " or " tuckermel." The murres and auks, 

 as is well known, do not make nests, but drop their eggs 



