EIDER DUCK. 
209 
Q*' softness, warratli, liglitness, and elasticity, surpasses 
^^t of all other ducks. The quantity found in one nest 
. "te than tilled the crown of a hat, yet weighed no 
than three quarters of an ounce;* and it is asserted 
^ three pounds of this don ii may he compressed into 
. *Pacc scarce bigger than a man’s list, yet is afterwards 
,^ilatal>le as to till a quilt live feet square.-j- 
I ■^lio native regions of the eider duck e.vtend from 45° 
to the highest latitudes yet discovered, both iu 
^^'*rope and America. Solitary rocky shores and islands 
I, '■ their favourite haunts. Some wandering jiairs have 
known to breed on the ro(!ky kslands beyond 
ji^*'tland in the district of Maine, which is jiorhaps the 
Jr®*tsouthern extent of their breeding iilace. In Kngland 
Pern Isles, on the coast of Northumberland, are 
p?"tiidly visited by a low of these birds, being the only 
in South Britain where tlieyai'C known to breed, 
occur again in some of the Western Isles of 
tirecnland and Iceland .abound tvith them, 
L‘rc, in particular ]ilaces, their nests are crowded 
1 ^ '^•ose together that a person can scarcely walk without 
(Ij '''liiig on them. The natives of those countries know 
'alue of the down, and carry on a regular system 
ij plunder both of it and also of the eggs. The ne.st is 
^Ijerally formed outwardly of drift grass, dry .sea weed, 
Such like materials, the inside composed of a large 
iij^htity of down plucked from the breast of the female ; 
soft elastic bed she dejiosits live eggs, extremely 
y. /’oth and glos.sy, of a pale (dive colour; they are also 
llj*’'‘*'ly covered with the same kind of down. When 
Dy.." ”'dc number is laid, they are taken away by the 
and idso the doivu with n hich the nest is lined, 
(,j®*'lher n ith that which covers the eggs. The female 
In "lore strip.s her breast of the remaining doivu, and 
u Second time ; even this, with the eggs, is generally 
^'vay, and it is said th.at the male in thi.s extremity 
Ijj. the third quantity of down from his oivu 
; but if the cruel robbery be a third time repeated. 
’ Penkant 
''OL. in. 
f Salem, Ornith. p. 416. 
O 
