434 EIDER DOWN. 
males leave the land and join together in large flocks out at sea. They 
begin to moult in July, and soon become so large as to be scarcely able 
to rise from the water. By the 1st of August, according to the same 
author, scarcely an eider duck was to be seen on the coast of Labrador. 
The young, as soon as hatched, are led by the female to the water, where 
they remain, except at night and in stormy weather. 
Sometimes two females deposit their eggs in the same nest, and sit 
amicably together. Both sexes assist in forming the nest though the 
female only sits ; but the male watches in the vicinity and gives notice 
of the danger. This seems to be confirmed by the account given of the 
nesting place at Vidoe. 
The skin with the feathers on forms aii article of commerce, particu- 
larly with the Chinese. M. Audubon is of opinion that if this valuable 
bird were domesticated, it would prove a great acquisition, both on ac- 
count of its down and its flesh as an article of food ; and he is persuaded 
that very little attention would effect this. Indeed, it appears that the 
experiment was made at Eastport with success, but the greater number 
of the ducks were shot, being taken by gunners for wild birds. The 
same author says that when in captivity it feeds on different kinds of 
grain, and moistened Indian corn meal, when its flesh becomes excellent. 
Mr. Selby succeeded twice in rearing eiders from the eggs and kept 
them alive upwards of a year, when they were accidentally killed. 
The eider duck has been, though with great difficulty, domesticated 
in a few places in Norway ; it lives there now with the greatest careless- 
ness, and breeds even in the kitchens of the houses. Norway eider- 
down, from Tranoe, was shown in the Exhibition of 1862. A special 
kind of eider-down is collected by the Russians at Nova Zembla and 
Spitzbergen, it comes from the Gagka duck. 
Capt. Beechey, in his account of Buchan's * Voyage of Discovery to- 
wards the North Pole,' states, that on some of the islets in Magdalena 
Bay on the north-west coast of Spitzbergen, the king ducks were so 
numerous that it was scarcely possible to walk without stepping upon 
their nests ; and could we (he says) have divested ourselves of all con- 
sideration of the young birds, we might have filled several sacks with 
that valuable commodity, eider-down, of which their nests were com- 
posed. The down is of that tenacious character that it adheres to every 
rough substance it touches, and thus effectually prevents the nests being 
overturned or blown away by strong winds. The quantity of down re- 
quired for one of these nests deprives the parent of a great portion of 
the down upon its breast, which is in consequence left nearly bare for a 
considerable time ; and it is quite pitiable to observe the condition of 
those which have probably been obliged to make a second nest. The 
males may also be seen occasionally with their breasts denuded of down, 
from their having contributed to the formation of the nests. 
