264 duck. 



hear of a single instance of its being met with ; a male having been 

 once shot in the Isle of Thanet, in Kent;* but in the western Isles 

 of Scotland,! and on theFarn Isles is not unfrequent, by some called 

 Colk ; in these last it breeds, and is generally supposed to lay about 

 five eggs,% these are placed on the ground, of a pale green, and 

 glossy, about three inches inches in length ; and the female secures 

 them from cold in a bed of fine down, plucked from the breast : 

 this down is of the lightest and warmest nature of any yet known .§ 

 The natives, who know its value, plunder the nests, taking away 

 both down and eggs; on which the female is said to lay again, 

 furnishing a second parcel of down, her last stock ; and if again 

 robbed, the male must furnish the down for the egg to lie on ; and 

 if the eggs and down are then taken away, they will totally desert 

 the place ;|| for it is supposed to be constant to the same breeding 

 places ; a pair have been observed to occupy the same nest for twenty 

 years together. 



* Col. Montagu mentions one being shot on the Coast of South Devon, in the winter of 

 1807.— See Orn. Diet. Supp. 



f Most plentiful at Papa Westray, one of theOrknies. — Lin Trans, viii. 268. A nest 

 found at Pentland Skerrie, very near the lighthouse. 



£ Von Troil observed sixteen eggs in one nest, which belonged to two females, who 

 agreed remarkably well together ; hence we may conclude, that one bird may sometimes lay 

 eight. — Von Troil' s Iceland, p. 144. 



§ The quantity of down in one nest more than filled the crown of a hat, yet weighed 

 only three quarters of an ounce. — Br. Zool. Three pounds of this down may be compressed 

 in a space scarcely bigger than the first, yet is afterwards so dilatable, as to fill a quilt five 

 feet square. — Salem. Orn. p. 416. That found in the nest most valued, and termed Live- 

 down, this is greatly more elastic than that plucked from the dead bird, which is little 

 esteemed in Iceland : the best is sold for 45 fish per pound, when cleansed, and at 16 when 

 not cleansed.* There are generally exported every year, on the Company's account, 1500 or 

 2000 pounds of both sorts, exclusive of what is privately exported by foreigners. In 1750 

 the Iceland Company sold as much as amounted to 3745 banco dollars, besides what was 

 sent to Gluckstadt.— Von Troil, p. 146. See also Bechst. Deuts. ii. 635. 



|| Br. Zool. The whole of the time in which they lay eggs is about six or seven weeks. 



* When cleaned it sells for 20 species for six pounds, while the uncleaned fetches no more than 20 spe- 

 cies per bag of 40 pounds. — Brooke's Sweden, p. 170. 



