TI-IE EIDER DUCK. 
845 
long-oval shape, and of a dirty green colour, sometimes 
grayer, sometimes bluer in tint,—and then she com¬ 
mences to incubate. After a few days she sits very 
close, permitting people to approach very near the nest. 
I often, when in Scandinavia, had the great pleasure of 
watching the Eider Duck while incubating. At first we 
found it very difficult to find the sitting bird, owing to 
the great resemblance of the colouring of her plumage to 
that of the ground and surrounding herbage; so great, 
indeed, that at a short distance the bird becomes 
invisible, added to which she possesses the singular 
habit of sitting with the wings partially expanded on 
either side, and the head stretched out in a slanting 
direction till the beak touches the ground. If the nest is 
placed in a thick bed of seaweed, or half-hidden under a 
scanty bush, one does not remark the bird until standing 
right before it. 
It is impossible to imagine to oneself a more delightful 
picture of trustfulness than that afforded by an Eider 
Duck on her nest. As you approach she looks up 
with an imploring glance, and if you bend over her she 
will remain quite quiet, as though no harm could possibly 
arise out of your visit. On breeding islands, where there 
are no human habitations, the Eider Duck, it is true, is 
much shyer than in the neighbourhood of man, but even 
in such places they will allow you to come very close to 
them before they will rise from the nest. Several 
females allowed me to lift them off the nest and replace 
them again; I might feel and examine the eggs under 
them, stroke them and touch their beaks; they would 
only playfully nibble my fingers, without taking any 
further defensive steps. If I took one up and carried her 
some way from her nest, she would, on being placed on 
