NOTES AND QUERIES. 365 



showy creature, with much white plumage. He is excessively shy and 

 wary, while the duck, whose plumage is brown and glossy, is, on the 

 contrary, tame and confiding. The latter lays from five to six eggs at the 

 beginning of June, and it is no unusual thing to find from ten to sixteen 

 eggs in one nest, together with two ducks, which sit either at intervals 

 or, if necessary, side by side, and, strange to say, they seem to agree 

 remarkably well. The period of laying lasts six or seven weeks, and the 

 birds are in the habit of laying three times in different places. From 

 the first and second of these nests both the down and the eggs are taken 

 away, but from the last it is very seldom that the farmer removes either. 

 Should he do so with any degree of persistency the birds would desert the 

 locality. Tn some cases the owner resides on or near the farm. In this 

 particular instance he visited the island from the mainland once a week at 

 the least. So soon as he and his men arrive at a nest they carefully 

 remove the sitting female, and take away the superfluous down and eggs. 

 The duck immediately begins to lay afresh, and covers her eggs with new 

 down, which she plucks from her own breast. If the supply is inadequate, 

 the male comes to her assistance and helps to cover the eggs with his down. 

 This, being white, is easily distinguished from the brown covering which 

 the duck supplies, and is not so good in quality. The nest is now, as a 

 general rule, left until the young ones are hatched. There is not much 

 callowness and helplessness about these youngsters. About an hour after 

 they are out of the shell they quit the nest together, when it is once more 

 plundered. The best down and the greatest number of eggs are obtained 

 during the first three weeks of the laying period, and it has in general been 

 observed that the birds lay the greatest number of eggs in rainy weather. 

 The Eider Duck is a close and persistent sitter, and so long as she is sitting 

 the drake, with commendable constancy, remains on the watch hard by, but 

 as soon as the young are hatched, he considers his responsibility at an end, 

 and leaves them to their own devices and the care of their mother. It is a 

 curious and pretty sight to see how the latter looks after her brood. She 

 leads them out of the nest so soon as they creep out of the eggs, and precedes 

 them to the water, while they toddle after her. When she reaches the water- 

 side she takes them on her back and swims with them for a few yards ; she 

 then dives, and the little ones are thon left floating on the water like yellow 

 corks, and henceforth are obliged to look after themselves. Indeed, the 

 farmer seldom sees his flock again until the next breeding season, for they 

 become comparatively wild, and live out among the damp rocks in the sea, 

 where they feed upon insects and small Crustacea and raollusca. Some 

 idea of the value of the crop may be gleaned from the fact that one female 

 during the whole time of laying generally gives half-a-pound of down, which 

 is, however, reduced one-half after it is cleaned. The down is divided into 

 thang-dunn, or sea- weed down, and gras-dunn, or grass-down. The latter 



