EIDER DUCK. 
209 
for softness, warmth, lightness, and elasticity, surpasses 
that of all other ducks. The quantity found in one nest 
more than tilled the crown of a hat, yet weighed no 
more than three quarters of an ounce ;* and it is asserted 
that three pounds of this down may be compressed into 
a space scarce bigger than a man’s fist, yet is afterwards 
so dilatable as to fill a quilt five feet square, f 
The native regions of the eider duck extend from 45° 
north to the highest latitudes yet discovered, both in 
Europe and America. Solitary rocky shores and islands 
are their favourite haunts. Some wandering pairs have 
been known to breed on the rocky islands beyond 
Portland in the district of Maine, which is perhaps the 
most southern extent of their breeding place. In England 
the Fern Isles, on the coast of Northumberland, are 
annually visited by a few of these birds, being the only 
place in South Britain where they are known to breed. 
They occur again in some of the Western Isles of 
Scotland. Greenland and Iceland abound with them, 
and here, in particular places, their nests are crowded 
so close together that a person can scarcely walk without 
treading on them. The natives of those countries know 
the value of the down, and carry on a regular system 
of plunder both of it and also of the eggs. 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 glossy, 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 
furnishes the third quantity of down from his own 
breast ; but if the cruel robbery be a third time repeated, 
* Pennant. f Salem. Ornith. p. 416. 
VOL. III. O 
