THE EIDER DUCK. 351 



On the 31st of May, 1833, my son and party killed six Eiders on the 

 island of Grand Manan, off the Bay of Fundy, where the birds were seen 

 in considerable numbers, and were just beginning to breed. A nest contain- 

 ing two eggs, but not a particle of down, was found at a distance of more 

 than fifty yards from the water. 



Immediately after landing on the coast of Labrador, on the 18th of June 

 in the same year, we saw a great number of "Sea Ducks," as the gunners 

 and fishermen on that coast, as well as on our own, call the Eiders and some 

 other species. On visiting an island in "Partridge Bay," Ave procured 

 several females. The birds there paid little attention to us, and some allow- 

 ed us to approach within a few feet before they left their nests, which were 

 so numerous that a small boat-load might have been collected, had the party 

 been inclined. They were all placed amid the short grass growing in the 

 fissures of the rock, and therefore in rows, as it were. The eggs were gene- 

 rally five or six, in several instances eight, and in one ten. Not a male bird 

 was to be seen. At the first discharge of the guns, all the sitting birds flew 

 off and alighted in the sea, at a distance of about a hundred yards. They 

 then collected, splashed up the water, and washed themselves, until the boat 

 left the place. Many of the nests were unprovided with down; some had 

 more or less than others, and some, from which the female was absent when 

 the party landed, were quite covered with it, and the eggs felt warm to the 

 hand. The musquitoes and flies were there as abundant and as tormenting 

 as in any of the Florida swamps. 



On the 24th of the same month, two male Eiders, much advanced in the 

 moult, were shot out of a flock all composed of individuals of the same sex. 

 While rambling over the moss-covered shores of a small pond, on the 7th of 

 July, we saw two females with their young on the water. As we approach- 

 ed the edges, the old birds lowered their heads and swam off with those 

 parts lying flat on the surface, while the young followed so close as almost 

 to touch them. On firing at them without shot, they all dived at once, but 

 rose again in a moment, the mothers quacking and murmuring. The young 

 dived again, and we saw no more of them; the old birds took to wing, and, 

 flying over the hills, made for the sea, from which we were fully a mile dis- 

 tant. How their young were to reach it was at that time to me a riddle; but 

 was afterwards rendered intelligible, as you will see in the sequel. On the 

 9th of July, while taking an evening walk, I saw flocks of female Eiders 

 without broods. They were in deep moult, kept close to the shore in a bay, 

 and were probably sterile birds. On my way back to the vessel, the captain 

 and I started a female from a broad flat rock, more than a hundred yards 

 from the water, and, on reaching the spot, we found her nest, which was 

 placed on the bare surface, without a blade of grass within five yards of it. 



