6 GOOD MOTHER EIDER-DUCK. 



Their nests are a sort of little mattress, made of drift-grass and 

 sea- weed, and over it they spread a bed of finest down. The care- 

 ful mother plucks this down from her own breast, heaping it up in 

 a thick, fluffy roll around the edge of the nest. 



You know that while she is sitting on her eggs she must some- 

 times leave the nest for food. The weather is so cold that before 

 she goes she carefully turns this roll of down over the eggs, to 

 keep them warm until her return. A great deal of money is made 

 by the Icelanders in selling the down. When it is taken from the 

 nest the little mother goes to work just as carefully as before, and 

 makes it all over. But if they take it the second time, and her 

 home is left with bare walls, her breast bare, too, what is she to 

 do? 



In a moment the male bird comes to her help, and plucks the 

 down off his own breast. His feathers are whiter, though not so 

 soft. 



This down is so light that it takes a great many feathers to 

 weigh anything at all. If you should fill your father's hat with 

 them they would not weigh an ounce. And yet, after all, they 

 would make you the warmest covering in the world. 



