Islands in May, soon after which tlie females hegin to prepare their nests, and usually commence laying 
about the twentieth of that month. As soon as this takes place and incubation commences, the males 
leave the females and again spread themselves along the shore in companies of four or five together.” 
Briinnich, 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 hush, wdiere it can be had; 
where there is no juniper, they contetit themselves with tufts of sea-grass, bundles of sea-weed cast up by 
the tide, the crevices of rocks, or any hollow place they can find. Some of the Iceland proprietors of 
hreeding-grounds, in order to accommodate them, cut out holes in rows on the smooth sloping hanks where 
they would not otherwise build, but gladly take possession of them when scooped out to hand. It is not a 
a little remarkable that, like several other sea-hirds, they almost always select small islands, their nests being 
seldom, if ever, found on the shores of the mainland or even on a large island. The Icelanders are so well 
aw^are 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 for 
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 from their 
settlement. 
“Both sexes work in concert in building their nest, laying a rather coarse foundation of drift grass, dry 
tangle, and sea-weed. Upon this rough mattress the female spreads a bed of the finest down plucked from 
her own breast and by no means sparingly, but heaping it up so as to form a thick roll quite round the nest. 
When she is necessitated to go in quest of food after beginning to sit, she carefully turns this roll of down 
over the eggs to keep them warm till her return. It is worthy of remark that though the Eider Duck lays 
only five or six eggs, it is not uncommon to find ten or more in the same nest, occupied by two females who 
live together in perfect concord. The quantity of down in each nest is said by Von Troil to be about 
half a pound, which by cleaning, is reduced by one-half. Its extraordinary elasticity appears from the fact 
that three quarters of an ounce will fill a large bat; and Pontoppidan says that two or three pounds of 
it, though pressed into a ball which may be held in the hand, upon being allowed to expand, will fill 
the covering of a large bed. It is worthy of notice, however, that it is only the down taken from the 
nests which has this great elasticity ; for what is taken from the dead birds is said to be far from as light 
as that the female plucks to form a bed for its young. It is on this account that it is prohibited by the laws 
of Norway to kill the Eiders for their down .” — Rennies edit, of Montagus Orn. Diet. 
“The food of the Eider,” says Macgillivray, “consists of bivalve mollusca, which it obtains by diviiig, 
as well as of Crustacea, fishes, and the roe of both. I am not aware of its ever feeding upon vegetables 
in its natural state; and yet when domesticated it has been found readily to eat grain. This remarkable 
facility of transition from an animal to a vegetable food appears to be very common in this family of 
birds, and is said to produce a corresponding change in their flesh as an article of food. That of the 
Eider, under its common regimen, is, I think, fully as palatable as the flesh of the Mallard. The flight 
of this bird is direct, steady, and moderately rapid, being performed by continuous quick beats of the wings, 
generally low over the water. It swims well, sitting lightly, although from the flatness of its body it seems 
to sink considerably, and on diving is capable of remaiiiing a considerable time under water.” 
I agree with Audubon in believing that if this bird were domesticated it would prove a valuable 
acquisition, both on account of its feathers and down and its flesh as an article of food ; and that this would 
not be a matter of difficulty is certain, since the thirteenth Earl of Derby and Mr. Selby both succeeded in 
rearing young birds from the egg, which lived for more than a year; and two males and a female are at this 
moment (April 1870) living in the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent’s Park, which have 
become so tame that they readily advance towards any stranger and take pieces of biscuit or other food 
from his hand. This is the more surprising when we consider how different must be the garden enclosures 
from the stormy seas and the supply of marine animals there obtained; it shows how readily the bird 
aceommodates itself to the situation in which it may he placed. 
The accompanying Plate will furnish a better idea of the differences in the colouring of the sexes than any 
verbal description however minute. As is the case with the generality of the Ducks, the male is not always 
so beautifully adorned as there represented ; for not only do the feathers of the head give place after the 
pairing-season to others of a different hue, but by the time the female has hatched her eggs, a total change 
also occurs in the plumage of the body, and during the months of autumn the two sexes are very much alike. 
I cannot conclude my account of the Eider without recording my obligations to C. Monfort, Esq., of 
M^orthing, for the loan of the very fine examples killed by him in the Orkneys. 
The front figure in the Plate represents a male about four-fifths the natural size ; the reduced ones 
in the distance show the difference in the colouring of the sexes. 
