431 
EIDER-DOWN. 
The genus Somateria is peculiarly marine. Dr. Sir John Richardson, 
whose opportunities of observing the northern birds were so great, and 
so well usedj says that the king duck (S. spectabilis) and the eider duck (S. 
mollissima) are never, as he believes, seen in fresh water, their food con- 
sisting mostly of the soft mollusca in the Arctic Sea. They are, he adds, 
o ily partially migratory, the older birds seldom moving farther south- 
wards in winter than to permanent open water. He states that some 
eider ducks pass that season on the coast of New Jersey, but that the 
king ducks have not been seen to the southward of the 59th parallel. 
Audubon, however, says that in the depth of winter the latter have been 
observed off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, and 
that a few have been obtained off Boston, and at Eastport in Maine. 
The genus is remarkable for the high development of the exquisitely 
soft and elastic down so valuable in commerce, and so essential to the 
keeping up of the proper balance of animal heat in the icy regions in- 
habited by these birds. 
Colonel Sabine mentions the eider duck as abundant on the shores 
of Davis' Strait and Baffin's Bay, but adds that, deriving its food princi- 
pally from the sea, it was not met with after the entrance of the ships 
into the Polar Ocean, where so little open water is found. Capt. Lyon 
saw the eider in Duke of York's Bay. Capt. Sir James Ross notices 
vast numbers of the king duck as resorting annually to the shores and 
islands of the Arctic regions in the breeding season, and as having on 
many occasions afforded a valuable and salutary supply of fresh provi- 
sion to the crews of the vessels employed in those seas. Speaking of 
the eider duck, he says, it is so similar in its habits to the king duck, 
that the same remarks apply equally to both. In Lapland, Norway, 
Iceland, Greenland, and at Spitzbergen, the eider duck is very abundant, 
and it abounds also at Bering's Island, the Kuriles, the Hebrides and 
Orkneys. In Sweden and Denmark it is said to be more rare and in 
Germany to be only observed as a passenger. 
Temminck states that the young only are seen on the coasts of the 
ocean, and that the old ones never show themselves. The down of the 
king duck is equally excellent, and is collected in great quantities by 
the inhabitants of the Danish colonies in Greenland, forming a valuable 
source of revenue to Denmark. A vast quantity of this down is also 
collected on the coast of Norway, and in some parts of Sweden. The 
eider duck is found throughout Arctic America, and is said to wander in 
severe winters as far south to sea as the capes of the Delaware. From 
November to the middle of February small numbers of old birds are 
usually seen towards the extremities of Massachusetts Bay and along 
the coast of Maine. A few pairs have been known to breed on some 
rocky islands beyond Portland, and M. Audubon found several nesting 
