318 
EIDER ISLAND. 
named Eider Island, was so tliickly colonized that we 
could hardly walk without treading on a nest. We 
killed with guns and stones over two hundred birds in 
a few hours. 
EIDER ISLAND. 
It was near the close of the breeding-season. The 
nests were still occupied by the mother-birds, but many 
of the young had burst the shell, and were nestling 
under the wing, or taking their first lessons in the 
wat'w-pools. Some, more advanced, were already in the 
ice-sheltered channels, greedily waiting for the shell-fish 
and sea-urchins, which the old bird busied herself in 
procuring for them. 
