232 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



hatched," adds the English naturalist, " it takes them out to sea, 

 and never looks at land till next breeding-time, nor is seen anywhere 

 about our coasts." 



There seems to be some considerable difference between the 

 down taken from the dead bird and that which the female plucks 

 from her breast. The lightness and elasticity of the latter are such 

 that two or three pounds of it squeezed into a ball which may be 

 held in the hand will expand so as to fill a quilt large enough to 

 cover a bed. When the female prepares her nest, she lines it as 

 above mentioned ; when she has laid her four or six eggs, which 

 are about three inches in length and two in breadth, she strips herself 

 a second time ; should this down be abstracted, as it generally is, 

 and she is unable to supply more, the male submits himself to the 

 same plucking process, his contribution being known by its paler 

 colour. 



The haunts of a bird yielding so valuable an article are care- 

 fully watched, and proprietors do everything in their power to 

 attract them to their land. In Scotland and Norway the districts 

 resorted to by the Eider Ducks are strictly preserved, everything 

 likely to disturb them being carefully guarded against. Pennant 

 thus records a visit he paid to one of their breeding-places in the 

 Farn Islands on the 15th of July, 1769: — "I found the ducks 

 sitting," he writes, "and I took some of the nests, the base of 

 which was formed of sea-plants and covered with the down. 

 After separating it carefully from the plants it weighed only three- 

 quarters of an ounce, yet was so elastic that it filled a greater 

 space than the crown of the largest hat. These birds are not 

 numerous on the isles, and it was observed that the drakes kept on 

 the side most remote from the sitting-places. The ducks continue 

 on the nest till you come almost to them, and when they rise, they 

 are very slow fliers. The eggs are of a very pale olive colour, large, 

 glossy, and smooth; they are from three to four, warmly bedded 

 in down." Sir George Mackenzie, in his "Travels in Iceland," 

 says that " the boat in its approach to Vidoe passed multitudes of 

 eider ducks, which hardly moved out of the way ; and. between the 

 landing-place and the Governor's house it required some caution to 

 avoid treading on the nests, while the drakes were walking about 

 even more familiar than common ducks. The ducks were sitting 

 on their nests all round the house, on the garden wall, on the roof, 

 in the inside of the house, and on the chapel." 



The locality where the Eiders make their nests when not in the 

 above semi-tame state is always difficult of access. Nevertheless, 



