nr.] 
EIDERS. 
125 
disappears in a few hours. The eider, which some years ago was 
very numerous on Spitzbergen,^ has of late years considerably 
diminished in numbers, and perhaps will soon be completely 
driven thence, if some restraint be not laid on the heedless way 
in which not only the Eider Islands are now plundered, but the 
birds too killed, often for the mere pleasure of slaughter. On 
Novaya Zemlya, too, the eider is common. It breeds, for in¬ 
stance, in not inconsiderable numbers on the high islands in 
Karmakul Bay. The eider’s flesh has, it is true, but a slight 
flavour of train oil, but it is coarse and far inferior to that of 
Briinnich’s guillemot. In particular, the flesh of the female 
while hatching is almost uneatable. 
The king-duck occurs more sparingly than the common 
eider. On Spitzbergen it is called the “ Greenland eider,” on 
Greenland the Spitzbergen eider,” which appears to indicate 
that in neither place is it quite at home. On hlovaya Zemlya, on 
the other hand, it occurs in larger numbers. Only once have I 
seen the nest of this bird, namely, in 1873 on Axel’s Islands in 
Bell Sound, where it bred in limited numbers together with the 
common eider. In the years 1858 and 1864, when I visited the 
same place, it did not breed there. Possibly its proper breeding 
place is on ]^^ovaya Zemlya at the inland lakes a little way from 
the coast. The walrus-hunters say that its eggs taste better 
than those of the common eider. They are somewhat smaller 
and have a darker green colour. 
On the Down Islands hatches, along with the eiders, the long¬ 
necked frutgaessm, barnacle goose {Anser hernicla, L.) marked 
on the upper part of the body in black and brownish grey. 
It lays four to five white eggs in an artless nest without 
down, scattered here and there among the eiders’ nests rich in 
^ The quantity of eider-down which was brought from the Polar lands 
toTromsoe amounted in 1868 to 540, in 1869 to 963, in 1870 to 882, in 1871 
to 630, and in 1872 to 306 kilograms. The total annual yield may be 
estimated at probably three times as much. 
