EIDER DUCK. cI 
carry on a regular system of plunder both of it and also of 
the eggs. The nest is generally formed outwardly of drift 
grass, dry seaweed, and such like materials ; the inside com- 
posed of a large quantity of down plucked from the breast of 
the female. In this soft elastic bed she deposits five eggs, 
extremely smooth and glossy, of a pale olive colour ; they are 
also warmly covered with the same kind of down. When the 
whole number is laid, they are taken away by the natives, and 
also the down with which the nest is lined, together with that 
which covers the eggs. The female once more strips her 
breast of the remaining down, and lays a second time; even 
this, with the eggs, is generally taken away, and it is said that — 
the male, in this extremity, furnishes the third quantity of 
down from his own breast ; but if the cruel robbery be a third 
time repeated, they abandon the place altogether. One female, 
during the whole time of laying, generally gives half a pound 
of down ; and we are told, that in the year 1750, the Iceland 
Company sold as much of this article as amounted to three 
thousand seven hundred and forty-five banco dollars, besides 
what was directly sent to Gluckstadt.* The down from dead 
birds is little esteemed, having lost its elasticity. 
These birds associate together in flocks, generally in deep 
water, diving for shellfish, which constitute their principal 
food. They frequently retire to the rocky shores to rest, par- 
ticularly on the appearance of an approaching storm. They 
are numerous on the coast of Labrador, and are occasionally 
seen in winter as far south as the Capes of Delaware. Their 
flesh is esteemed by the inhabitants of Greenland, but tastes 
strongly of fish. 
The length of this species is two feet three inches, extent, 
three feet ; weight, between six and seven pounds; the head 
is large, and the bill of singular structure, being three inches 
in length, forked in a remarkable manner, running high up in 
the forehead, between which the plumage descends nearly to 
the nostril ; the whole of the bill is of a dull yellowish horn 
* Letters on Iceland, by Uno Van Troil, p. 146. 
