Eider-Duck 29 
Only twice in the season is the Eider robbed of her down. The third time would be 
fatal to the gatherer's purpose. When the birds arrive they select a site for their home in a 
niche, a ledge, or a hollow, and in this four or five pale-green eggs are laid and the hen sits 
down to her task. As the days pass she plucks the soft, warm down from her body, and 
with it builds up a small barricade around her. When she has done this the man with 
the bag comes along and lifts the hen, gathers up the beautiful down and the eggs, lays the 
hen back on her harried nest, and walks on to the next. But the Eider is a philosopher. 
With little protestation she begins to build up a new home, and this^ time her eggs generally 
number three. They, too, are buried in a pillow of soft grey down ; and again the man 
with the bag appears and robs her. After this, however, she is left in peace for the rest 
of the season. 
The Greenlanders — that is, the half-breed Danes and Esquimaux — who make a practice 
of shooting Eiders and King-Eiders in the spring, pluck the whole of the breast and lower 
parts of the outer feathers, and then skin and dry these parts, which are sent to Copen- 
hagen, Bergen, and Throndhjem. Here they are used for the edgings of superior bed- 
quilts, and on the outside edges of these are also placed the beautiful head and neck-skins 
(unplucked) of the male Eider and King-Eider. This makes a lovely ornament for any 
bed, and they are worked into shape in large numbers by the firms of Brandt (Bergen) and 
Brunn (Throndhjem). One of these quilts cost from ^lo to and they often figure 
in the lists of wedding presents in London drawing-rooms. 
The Greenlanders also sew these plucked skins together and wear them as shirts, 
the down side resting against the bare skin, for which they are considered the best possible 
protection. 
Varieties of the Eider are extremely rare. I remember about thirty years ago going to 
visit the late Frederick Bond, who possessed such a remarkable collection of albinos and 
varieties, at Staines. I was accompanied by Mr. E. Bidwell, who carried with him as a 
gift to the old naturalist, a beautiful white Eider-Duck, which I think had been killed 
in Norway. This bird is now in the collection of Mr. J. Whitaker of Rainworth, Notts, 
who purchased the " Bond " collection after the death of the owner. The only other white 
specimen I know of is now in the National collection at Copenhagen. It is figured by 
Mr. E. Lehn Schioler in his paper, Lidtom Ederfuglen, Somateria nwllissinia, Z., og Nogle 
af dens racer, p. 146, Copenhagen, June 1908. 
In the Natural History Museum at Christiania, I recently examined an interesting 
example of an old female Eider partially assuming the plumage of the male, killed on the 
Norwegian coast. The long secondaries are unusually curled, and there is much black on 
the flanks and white in the scapulars of the bird in question. Hybrids between this species 
are also extremely rare. A few years ago I examined in London two very beautiful adult 
male hybrids between the Greenland Eider and the King-Eider. The plumage of these 
two specimens was a remarkable blending of the plumage of both species, and they were 
both figured by Mr. H. Gronvold for the Proceedings of the Danish National Mitseum, 
where the specimens now^ are. Both birds were killed at the same time in spring on the 
west coast of Greenland. 
Mr. W. Eagle Clarke has given (Scot. Nat., 191 2, p. 198, PI. V.) a description and 
figure of a remarkable hybrid between an Eider and a Wild Duck. It is a drake, and was 
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