262 
the smooth and sloping sides of a hill, in 
two rows, and, in every one of these also, 
there is a nest. No Norfolk housewife is 
half so solicitous after her poultry, as the 
Stiftsamptman after his Eider Ducks, which 
by their down and eggs, afford him a consi- 
derable revenue ; since the former sells for 
three rix-dollars (12s.) a pound. " (Ibid.) 
In Greenland, Iceland, Spitsbergen, 
Lapland, and some parts of the coast of 
Norway, the inhabitants eagerly watch the 
time when the first hatchings of the eggs 
are laid : of these they rob the nest, and 
also of the more important article, the down 
with which it is lined, which they carefully 
gather and carry off. These birds will 
afterwards strip themselves of their re- 
maining down, and lay a second hatching, 
of also which they are sometimes robbed ? 
but when this cruel treatment is repeated, 
they leave the place and return to it no more. 
Half a pounds of down is commonly ob- 
* Pennant in his Tour in Scotland, says, " we rot* 
bed a few of their nests of the down, and after carefully 
separating it from the tang, found that the down weighed 
