328 
SWIMMERS. 
1 
Strict watch in the vicinity, giving notice of any danger as soon 
as it appears. The Ravens, it seems, no less than the CJulls, 
are the enemies of this valuable bird, often sucking the eggs 
and killing the young ; the female therefore hastens to convey 
her brood to the sea, sometimes even carrying them on her 
back to the element in which they are thenceforth destined to 
live. The male now also leaves her, and neither of them 
returns more that season permanently to the land. Several 
hatches associate together at sea and form flocks of twenty or 
thirty, attended by the females, who lead them, and are seen 
continually splashing the water, to raise with the mud and sed- 
iment, the insects and small shell-fish for such of the young as 
are too weak to dive for themselves. 
The Eider dives deep after fry, and feeds upon small 
shell- fish, mussels, and univalves, and sometimes on the sea- 
urchin (^Echinus) and various kinds of marine insects and sea- 
weeds, and in summer mostly on the soft mollusca so abund- 
ant in the Arctic and hyperboreal seas. Its flesh is dark and 
fishy, though sufficiently tender, and that of the young and the 
female may be considered good. It is commonly eaten by the 
Greenlanders, and its skin is esteemed as an excellent inner 
garment. Prepared with the feathers left on, it also forms an 
article of commerce with the North, and particularly with the 
Chinese. Fitted purposely for inhabiting the coldest climates 
and the sea, the Eider does not long survive in temperate re- 
gions, and all attempts to domesticate it have consequently 
failed. 
In the breeding-season, in Norway, some of the male Eiders 
are seen roaming about unpaired, either superannuated or un- 
able to keep possession of the females. Mr. .'Audubon remarks 
that the Sea Ducks (Eiders, Surf Duck, Velvet, and Scoter) 
moult in July, and by the loth of August are so naked of 
feathers, and even destitute of quills, as to be unable to rise 
either from the water or the ground. At this juncture, in the 
Bay of Fundy, the Indians in large companies assemble in 
their canoes at the entrances of the bays frequented by these 
birds, and dividing themselves on either side of the headland. 
