62 
THE EIDER DUCK. . 
On the 31st of May, 1833, my son and party killed six Eiders on the 
island of Grand Manan, off the Bay of Pundy, where the birds were seen 
in considerable numbers, and were just beginning to breed. A nest contain- 
ing two eggs, but not a particle of down, was found at a distance of more 
than fifty yards from the water. 
Immediately after landing on the coast of Labrador, on the 18th of June 
in the same year, we saw a great number of “ Sea Ducks,” as the gunners 
and fishermen on that coast, as well as on our own, call the Eiders and some 
other species. On visiting an island in “ Partridge Bay,” we procured 
several females. The birds there paid little attention to us, and some allow- 
ed us to approach within a few feet before they left their nests, which were 
so numerous that a small boat-load might have been collected, had the party 
been inclined. They were all placed amid the short grass growing in the 
fissures of the rock, and therefore in rows, as it were. The eggs were gene- 
rally five or six, in several instances eight, and in one ten. Not a male bird 
was to be seen. At the first discharge of the guns, all the sitting birds flew 
off and alighted in the sea, at a distance of about a hundred yards. They 
then collected, splashed up the water, and washed themselves, until the boat 
left the place. Many of the nests were unprovided with down ; some had 
more or less than others, and some, from which the female was absent when 
the party landed, were quite covered with it, and the eggs felt warm to the 
hand. The musquitoes and flies were there as abundant and as tormenting 
as in any of the Florida swamps. 
On the 24th of the same month, two male Eiders, much advanced in the 
moult, were shot out of a flock all composed of individuals of the same sex. 
While rambling over the moss-covered shores of a small pond, on the 7th of 
July, we saw two females with their young on the water. As we approach- 
ed the edges, the old birds lowered their heads and swam off with those 
parts lying flat on the surface, while the young followed so close as almost 
to touch them. On firing at them without shot, they all dived at once, but 
rose again in a moment, the mothers quacking and murmuring. The young 
diveil again, and we saw no more of them ; the old birds took to wing, and, 
flying over the hills, made for the sea, from which we were fully a mile dis- 
tant. How their young were to reach it was at that time to me a riddle; but 
was afterwards rendered intelligible, as you will see in the sequel. On the 
9th of July, while taking an evening walk, I saw flocks of female Eiders 
without broods. They were in deep moult, kept close to the shore in a bay, 
and were probably sterile birds. On my way back to the vessel, the captain 
and I started a female from a broad flat rock, more than a hundred yards 
from the water, and, on reaching the spot, we found her nest, which was 
placed on the bare surface, without a blade of grass within five yards of it. 
