EIDER-DOWN. 433 
way for a more valuable stock which might be otherwise disturbed. In 
other cases artificial islets have been made by separating promontories 
from the continent ; and these eider tenements are handed down from 
father to son like any other inheritance. Notwithstanding all this care 
to keep the beds undisturbed, they are not, as we shall presently see, 
scared by the vicinity of man, in some places at least. We proceed to 
give the personal observations of some of those who have visited eider 
settlements. 
" When I visited the Fern Isles," (writes Pennant, it was on the 15th 
July, 1769), " I found the ducks sitting, and 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 as to fill a larger space than the 
crown of the greatest hat. These birds are not numerous on the isles, 
and it was observed that the drakes kept on those most remote from 
the setting places. The ducks continue on their nests till you come al- 
most close to them, and when they rise are very slow fliers. The num- 
ber of eggs in each nest was from three to five, warmly bedded in the 
down, ol a pale olive colour, and very large, glossy and smooth." 
Horrebow declares that one may walk among these birds while they 
are setting without scaring them, and Sir George Mackenzie, during his 
travels in Iceland, had an opportunity, on the 8th June at Vidoe, of ob- 
serving the eider ducks, at all other times of the year perfectly wild, 
assembling for the great work of incubation. The boat in its approch 
to the shore, passed multitudes of these birds 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, and utter- 
ing a sound which was like the cooing of doves. The ducks were 
sitting on their nests all round the house, on the garden wall, on the 
roofs, nay, even in the inside of the houses and in the chapel. 
Those which had not been long on the nest generally left it when they 
were approached ; but those that had more than one or two eggs sat 
perfectly quiet and suffered the party to touch them, though they some- 
times gently repelled the intrusive hand with their bills. But if a drake 
happen to be near his mate when thus visited, he becomes extremely 
agitated. He passes to and fro between her and the suspicious object, 
raising his head and cooing. M. Audubon saw them in great numbers 
on the coast of Labrador — where, by the way, the down is neglected— 
employed about their nests, which they begin to form about the end of 
May. They arrive there and on the coasts of Newfoundland about the 
first of that month. The eggs were of a dull greenish-white, and smooth, 
from six to ten in number. 
Aububon states that, as soon as incubation has commenced, the 
