232 ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL 
in captivity—Somaterta V. nigrum (Pacific Eider), Somateria 
spectabilis (King Eider Duck), Somateria dresseri, and Somateria 
mollissima, 
COMMON EIDER OR ST. CUTHBERT’S DUCK. 
(Somateria mollissima). 
These birds, which breed annually on the Farne Islands, 
off the coast of Northumberland, and which furnish the 
celebrated down, are distributed over the highest latitudes of 
Europe and America. They breed in May, June, and July, 
upon the sea coasts, occurring in great numbers in Greenland, 
Iceland, Norway, and adjacent countries; the northern shores 
of Russian Siberia, and the corresponding latitudes of North 
America being also the breeding places of the Eider. 
In Iceland these valuable birds are protected, coops 
and shelters of various kinds being provided as nesting 
places, each of which is immediately taken possession of by a 
pair of Eiders, who excavate a slight hollow and thickly line 
it with fine seaweed, and down from the mother’s breast. 
Should her nest be robbed of this down, she will continue 
to pluck herself till quite naked, after which the drake is 
compelled to find the necessary lining. On the bare rock the 
nests are placed so close together, that it is not easy to avoid 
trampling upon the young and eggs, the parents exhibiting the 
greatest fearlessness, not only allowing themselves to be 
handled in defence of their nest, but administering sharp bites 
upon the legs or hands of those who interfere with them. The 
amount of down found in one nest is stated to weigh about 
three quarters of an ounce, yet its elasticity is such, that when 
shaken out this quantity will fill the crown of a hat, the price 
obtainable being about ninepence an ounce, or twelve sbillings 
a pound ; the amount yielded by one female being reckoned at 
