354 THE EIDER DUCK. 



raise the spray around her, and on her uttering a peculiar sound, the young 

 dive in all directions, while she endeavours to entice the marauder to follow 

 her, by feigning lameness, or she leaps out of the water and attacks her 

 enemy, often so vigorously, that, exhausted and disappointed, he is glad to 

 fly off, on which she alights near the rocks, among which she expects to find 

 her brood, and calls them to her side. Now and then I saw two females 

 which had formed an attachment, to each other, as if for the purpose of more 

 effectually contributing to the safety of their young, and it was very seldom 

 that I saw these prudent mothers assailed by the Gull. 



The young, at the age of one week, are of a dark mouse-colour, thickly 

 covered with soft warm down. Their feet at this period are proportionally 

 very large and strong. By the 20th of July they seemed to be all hatched. 

 They grew rapidly, and when about a fortnight old were, with great diffi- 

 culty, obtained, unless during stormy weather, when they at times retired 

 from the sea to shelter themselves under the shelvings of the rocks at the 

 head of shallow bays. It is by no means difficult to rear them, provided 

 proper care be taken of them, and they soon become quite gentle and attach- 

 ed to the place set apart for them. A fisherman of Eastport, who carried 

 eight or ten of them from Labrador, kept them several years in a yard close 

 to the water of the bay, to which, after they were grown, they daily betook 

 themselves, along with some common Ducks, regularly returning on shore 

 towards evening. Several persons who had seen them, assured me that they 

 were as gentle as their associates, and although not so active on land, were 

 better swimmers, and moved more gracefully on the water. They were 

 kept until the male birds acquired their perfect plumage and mated; but 

 some gunners shot the greater number of them one winter day, having taken 

 them for wild birds, although none of them could fly, they having been 

 pinioned. I have no doubt that if this valuable bird were domesticated, it 

 would prove a great acquisition, both on account of its feathers and down, 

 and its flesh as an article of food. I am persuaded that very little attention 

 would be necessary to effect this object. When in captivity, it feeds on 

 different kinds of grain and moistened corn-meal, and its flesh becomes 

 excellent. Indeed, the sterile females which we procured at Labrador in 

 considerable number, tasted as well as the Mallard. The males were tougher 

 and more fishy, so that we rarely ate of them, although the fishermen and 

 settlers paid no regard to sex in this matter. 



When the female Eider is suddenly discovered on her nest, she takes to 

 wing at a single spring; but if she sees her enemy at some distance, she 

 walks off a few steps, and then flies away. If unseen by a person coming 

 near, as may often happen, when the nest is placed under the boughs of the 

 dwarf fir, she will remain on it, although she may hear people talking. On 



