THE EIDER DUCK. 
65 
raise the spray around her, and on her uttering a peculiar sound, the young 
dive in all directions, while she endeavours to entice the marauder to follow 
hqr, by feigning lameness, or she leaps out of the water and attacks her 
enemy, often so vigorously, that, exhausted and disappointed, he is glad to 
fly off, on which she alights near the rocks, among which she expects to find 
her brood, and calls them to her side. Now and then I saw two females 
which had formed an attachment to each other, as if for the purpose of more 
effectually contributing to the safety of their young, and it was very seldom 
^ that I saw these prudent mothers assailed by the Gull. 
The young, at the age of one week, are of a dark mouse-colour, thickly 
covered with soft warm down. Their feet at this period are proportionally 
very large and strong. By the 20th of July they seemed to be all hatched. 
They grew rapidly, and when about a fortnight old were, with great diffi- 
culty, obtained, unless during stormy weather, when they at times retired 
from the sea to shelter themselves under the shelvings of the rocks at the 
head of shallow bays. It is by no means difficult to rear them, provided 
proper care be taken of them, and they soon become quite gentle and attach- 
ed to the place set apart for them. A fisherman of Eastport, who carried 
eight or ten of them from Labrador, kept them several years in a yard close 
to the water of the bay, to which, after they were grown, they daily betook 
themselves, along with some common Ducks, regularly returning on shore 
towards evening. Several persons who had seen them, assured me that they 
were as gentle as their associates, and although not so active on land, were 
better swimmers, and moved more gracefully on the water. They were 
kept until the male birds acquired their perfect plumage and mated ; but 
some gunners shot the greater number of them one winter day, having taken 
them for wild birds, although none of them could fly, they having been 
pinioned. I have no doubt that if this valuable bird were domesticated, it 
would prove a great acquisition, both on account of its feathers and down, 
and its flesh as an article of food. I am persuaded that very little attention 
would be necessary to effect this object. When in captivity, it feeds on 
different kinds of grain and moistened corn-meal, and its flesh becomes 
excellent. Indeed, the sterile females which we procured at Labrador in 
considerable number, tasted as well as the Mallard. The males were 
tougher and more fishy, so that we rarely ate of them, although the fisher- 
men and settlers paid no regard to sex in this matter. 
When the female Eider is suddenly discovered on her nest, she takes to 
wing at a single spring ; but if she sees her enemy at some distance, she 
walks off a few steps, and then flies away. If unseen by a person coming 
near, as may often happen, when the nest is placed under the boughs of the 
dwarf fir, she will remain on it, although she may hear people talking. On 
Vol. VII. — 9 
