EIDER DUCK. 
151 
The nest is generally formed outwardly of drift grass, dry sea- 
weed, and such like materials ; the inside composed of a large 
quantity of down plucked from the breast of the female. In 
this soft elastic bed she deposits five eggs, extremely smooth and 
gloss)^, of a pale olive colour ; they are also warmly covered with 
the same kind of down. When the whole number is laid, they 
are taken away by the natives, and also the down with which 
the nest is lined, together with that which covers the eggs. 
The female once more strips her breast of the remaining down, 
and lays a second time ; even this, with the eggs, is generally 
taken away, and it is said that the male, in this extremity, fur- 
nishes the third quantity of down from his own breast ; but if 
the cruel robbery be a third time repeated, they abandon the 
place altogether. One female, during the whole time of lay- 
ing, generally gives half a pound of down ; and we are told, 
that in the year 1750, the Iceland Company sold as much of this 
article as amounted to three thousand seven hundred and forty- 
five banco dollars, besides what was directly sent to Gluck- 
stadt.* The down from dead birds is little esteemed, having 
lost its elasticity. 
These birds associate together in flocks, generally in deep 
water, diving for shell-fish, which constitute their principal 
food. They frequently retire to the rocky shores to rest, par- 
ticularly on the appearance of an approaching storm. They 
are numerous on the coast of Labrador, and are occasionally 
seen in winter as far south as the Capes of Delaware. Their 
flesh is esteemed by the inhabitants of Greenland, but tastes 
strongly of fish. 
The length of this species is two feet three inches, extent, 
three feet ; weight, between six and seven pounds ; the head 
is large, and the bill of singular structure, being three inches 
in length, forked in a remarkable manner, running high up in 
the forehead, between which the plumage descends nearly to 
the nostril ; the whole of the bill is of a dull yellowish horn 
* Letters on Iceland, by Uno Yak Troil, p. 146. 
