NATURAL HISTORY ol N ORWAY. ji 



If the firft five eggs are ftole away, then the Bird lays again 

 but only three, and in another neft; if thefe are loft, then fhe 

 lays one more. Four weeks the mother fits alone on the eggs, 

 and the cock ftands watching underneath in the water ; fo that if 

 any human creature or beaft of prey approaches, he gives her 

 notice, by crying hu hu, and then fhe covers her eggs with mofs 

 and down, which fhe keeps ready prepared, and comes down to 

 her mate on the water ,' but he does not receive her very kindly : Severe mate, 

 and if her eggs are loft by any accident, he gives her many blows 

 with his wings, which fhe muft take patiently ; and after this 

 he entirely deferts her, ^nd fhe is obliged to join the flock of her 

 kind, under the fame difgrace. A few days after the young ones 

 are hatch'd they are taken by the mother to the fea, and are not 

 forfaken even in the greateft diftrefs : fhe has been feen, fn time 

 of danger, to take her young ones on her back, to fwim the better 

 away, when they could not come after her. One of my corre- 

 spondents has feen, that as the Ravens and Crows hunt out for 

 thefe Birds nefts, to fuck out their eggs, or eat the young ones, 

 it has made them fometimes build half a mile farther up in the 

 country, that they might find a better hiding-place for their neft • 

 and then, when the young ones are to go to the fea with their 

 mother, fhe lays herfelf down, for them to climb on her back 

 and carries them away by an even flight. 



Tho' it be not fuffered to deftroy thefe Birds, on account of 

 their fine down, but only to gather it off from the neft, yet they Edder-do Wfl . 

 are too often killed by the inconfiderate ; but the feathers and 

 down which is plucked off the dead Birds are not near fo good as 

 that fhe pulls off herfelf from her breaft. This fhe does the laft 

 eight days fhe fits, to make the young ones a foft and warm bed. 

 The dead Birds down is greafy, and fubjecr. to decay, and is not 

 near fo light as the down of the neft, when it is cleanfed from 

 the ftalks of herbs, and other mixtures. It is fold, when pure, 

 for two rixdollars per pound, and is a good livelihood to many of 

 the people who live about the coafts ; for it is fo light, warm, 

 foft, and ready to fpread itfelf, that two handfuls fqueezed to- 

 gether is enough to fill a down quilt *. 



That this Edder^down is unwholfome, and particularly, that 

 it gives the epileptic ficknefs, is contradicted by Th. Bartholin, 

 in Medicina Danor. domeftica, p. 65: Neque vanus nonnullorum 



whereby fhe becomes quite faint and low. This account feems not right, according 

 to all experience, on this coaft, where they generally find but five, feldom the fixth, 



in the neft. ■ 



blanjfet C s° VerinS ^ * feathei " bed ' whkh the ? ufe in that countl 7 irftead of quilts and 



rumor 



