THE EIDER DUCK. 355 



such occasions my party frequently discovered the nests by raising the pine 

 branches, and were often as much startled as the Ducks themselves could be, 

 as the latter instantly sprung past them on wing, uttering a harsh cry. Now 

 and then some were seen to alight on the ground within fifteen or twenty 

 yards, and walk as if lame and broken-winged, crawling slowly away, to 

 entice their enemies to go in pursuit. Generally, however, they would fly 

 to the sea, and remain there in a large flock until their unwelcome visiters 

 departed. When pursued by a boat, with their brood around them, they 

 allowed us to come up to shooting distance, when, feigning decrepitude, 

 they would fly off, beating the water with partially extended wings, while 

 the young either dived or ran on the surface with wonderful speed, for forty 

 or fifty yards, then suddenly plunged, and seldom appeared at the surface 

 unless for a moment. The mothers always flew away as soon as their brood 

 dispersed, and then ended the chase. The cry or note of the female is a 

 hoarse rolling croak; that of the male I never heard. 



Should the females be robbed of their eggs, they immediately go off in 

 search of mates, whether their previous ones or not I cannot tell, although I 

 am inclined to think so. However this may be, the duck in such a case 

 soon meets with a drake, and may be seen returning the same day with him 

 to her nest. They swim, fly, and walk side by side, and by the end of ten 

 or twelve days the male takes his leave, and rejoins his companions out at 

 sea, while the female is found sitting on a new set of eggs, seldom, however, 

 exceeding four. But this happens only at an early period of the season, for 

 I observed that as soon as the males had begun to moult, the females, whose 

 nests had been plundered, abandoned the place. One of the most remark- 

 able circumstances connected with these birds is, that the females with 

 broods are fully three weeks later in moulting than the males, whereas those 

 which do not breed begin to moult as early as they. This may probably 

 seem strange, but I became quite satisfied of the fact while at Labrador, 

 where, from the number which we procured in a state of change, and the 

 vast quantities every now and then in sight, our opportunities of observing 

 these birds in a perfectly natural state were ampk- 



Some authors have said that the males keep watch near the females; but, 

 although this may be the case in countries such as Greenland and Iceland, 

 where the Eiders have been trained into a state of semi-domestication, it 

 certainly was not so in Labrador. Not a single male did we there see near 

 the females after incubation had commenced, unless in the case mentioned 

 above, when the latter had been deprived of their eggs. The males invari- 

 ably kept aloof and in large flocks, sometimes of a hundred or more indi- 

 viduals, remaining out at sea over large banks with from seven to ten 

 fathoms of water, and retiring at night to insular rocks. It seemed very 



