4292 Birds. 



frequently breeds, it seems pretty certain, that without aid of some 

 kind, the young can never reach the water. But in what manner their 

 transit is effected appears somewhat a mystery. I was assured, how- 

 ever, by a very respectable individual, the Superintendent of Winga 

 lighthouse, that he himself had often seen the old bird thus occupied. 

 ' She threw her progeny over her neck,' such were his words, ' as a fox 

 w T ould a goose, and thus bore them away to their own element.' It is 

 generally believed in Scandinavia, that when her young are in 

 jeopardy, the eider, as with the merganser, and some other birds, 

 takes her young on her back, and either swimming or diving, thus 

 conveys them to a place of safety. But this is probably a fallacy : it 

 is true that when the body of the old bird is submerged, which is 

 always the case when danger threatens, and that the young brood are 

 collected about her, it looks much as if they were actually seated on 

 her back; but if this were so, they must hold fast by the bill, which 

 they clearly never do, their heads at such times being quite erect." 



Again, close observation has proved that some birds convey their 

 young under their " throat" beneath the beak, and between that and 

 the neck. Thus, in speaking of the golden eye, Yarrell gives a very 

 interesting account from a clergyman in Lapland, who watched the 

 old bird fly backwards and forwards from the tree in which the nest 

 was built to the water, bringing down a young one after each visit, 

 " holding it under the bill, and supporting its body by her neck." 

 Lloyd, also, speaking of the golden eye, and quoting from the ' Pro- 

 ceedings of the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm,' says, " Whilst 

 the Pastor Bjorkman and his servant were lying in ambush near to a 

 lake, in the parish of Jockmock, in Lulea Lapmark, to shoot velvet 

 ducks, they saw from their place of concealment a female golden eye 

 alight amongst some willow bushes very near to them. An instant 

 afterwards, however, she again took wing, and, as they imagined, in 

 consequence of having observed them. But looking with attention 

 towards the spot where she had been, they noticed in her place 

 a newly hatched young one. They now began to wonder in what 

 manner it came there, when just at the moment the old bird returned 

 to the same place, and after depositing a second duckling, flew off 

 hurriedly as before. As yet they had not been able to distinguish in 

 what way she carried her offspring ; but on her third visit they 

 remarked her head to be inclined in a very peculiar manner; and on 

 the following, they clearly perceived, that in a sort of Ogla, or hollow, 

 formed by the head and bill resting on the breast, she conveyed them 

 under her throat. This account tallies also with the relation of the 



