172 
EIDER DUCK. 
breeds in the north of Scotland, particularly on the western isles, and 
on the Farn islands, on the coast of Northumberland, in the months of 
June and July. It lays five or six eggs of a pale greenish olive-colour. 
The nest is made on the ground, composed of marine plants, and lined 
with down of exquisite fineness, which the female plucks from her 
body. Sometimes a sufficient quantity is taken from one nest to fill 
the crown of a hat, the weight of which is not more than three quarters 
of an ounce. This is a considerable article of trade from the more 
northern countries. Its excessive lightness and elasticity admirably fits 
it for the purpose of stuffing quilts. 
* Brunnich, who wrote an express treatise on the Eider Duck, informs 
us that their first object after pairing is to procure a suitable place for 
their nest, preferring’ the shelter of a juniper bush, where it can be 
had ; and where there is no juniper, they content themselves with 
tufts of sea-grass, {Arundo arenaria, Poa maritima, Elymus arena- 
rius, <^c.,) bundles of sea-weed cast up by the tide, the crevices of rocks, 
or any hollow place which they can find. Some of the Iceland proprie- 
tors of breeding grounds, in order to accommodate them, cut out holes in 
rows on the smooth sloping banks, where they would not otherwise 
build, but gladly take possession of them when scooped out to hand.* 
It is not a little remarkable that, like several other sea-birds, they 
almost always select small islands, their nests being seldom, if ever, 
found on the shores of the main land, or even of a large island. The 
Icelanders are so well aware of this, that they have expended a great 
deal of labour in actually forming islands, by separating from the main 
island certain promontories joined to it by narrow isthmuses. 
The reason of this preference of islands seems to be, security from 
the intrusion of dogs, cattle, and other land animals, to whose vicinity 
they have so great an aversion, that the Icelanders are careful to 
remove these, as well as cats, to a distance from their settlements. 
“ One year,” says Hooker, ‘‘ a fox got over upon the ice to the island 
of Vidoe, and caused great alarm ; he was, however, though with diffi- 
culty, taken, by bringing another fox to the island and fastening it by 
a string near the haunt of the former, by which means he was allured 
within shot of the hunter.” The arctic fox {Cams Lagopus, Linn^us) * 
is traditionally said to have been introduced into Iceland by one of the 
Norwegian kings, to punish the disaffection of the inhabitants.^ 
Both the male and female Eider Ducks work in concert in building 
^ Hooker’s Tour in Iceland, p. 53. 
= Ib. p. 42. 
