68 
THE EIDER DUCK. 
such occasions my party frequently discovered the nests by raising the pine 
branches, and were often as much startled as the Ducks themselves could be, 
as the latter instantly sprung past them on wing, uttering a harsh cry. No,w 
and then some were seen to alight on the ground within fifteen or twenty 
yards, and walk as if lame and broken-winged, crawling slowly away, to 
entice their enemies to go in pursuit. Generally, however, they would fly 
to the sea, and remain there in a large flock until their unwelcome visiters 
departed. When pursued by a boat, with their brood around them, they 
allowed us to come up to shooting distance, when, feigning decrepitude, . 
they would fly off, beating the water with partially extended wings, while 
the young either dived or ran on the surface with wonderful speed, for forty 
or fifty yards, then suddenly plunged, and seldom appeared at the surface 
unless for. a moment. The mothers always flew away as soon as their brood 
dispersed, and then ended the chase. The cry or note of the female is a 
hoarse rolling croak ; that of the male I never heard. 
Should the females be robbed of their eggs, they immediately go off in 
search of mates, whether their previous ones or not I cannot tell, although I 
am inclined to think so. However this may be, the duck in such a case 
soon meets with a drake, and may be seen returning the same day with him 
to her nest. They swim, fly, and walk side by side, and by the end of ten 
or twelve days the male takes his leave, and rejoins his companions out at 
sea, while the female is found sitting on a new set of eggs, seldom, however, 
exceeding four. But this happens only at an early period of the season, for 
I observed that as soon as the males had begun to moult, the females whose 
nests had been plundered, abandoned the place. One of the most remark- 
able circumstances connected with these birds is, that the females with 
broods are fully three weeks later in moulting than the males, whereas those 
which do not breed begin to moult as early as they. This may probably 
seem strange, but I became quite satisfied of the fact while at Labrador, 
where, from the number which we procured in a state of chapge, and the 
vast quantities every now and then in sight, our opportunities of observing 
these birds in a perfectly natural state were ample. 
Some authors have said that the males keep watch near the females ; but, 
although this may be the case in countries such as Greenland and Iceland, 
where tlib Eiders have been trained into a state of semi-domestication, it 
certainly was not so in Labrador. Not a single male did we there see near 
the females after incubation had commenced, unless in the case mentioned 
above, when the latter had been deprived of their eggs. The males invari- 
ably kept aloof and in large flocks, sometimes of a hundred or more indi- 
viduals, remaining out at sea over large banks with from seven to ten 
fathoms of water, and retiring at night to insular rocks. It seemed very 
