s begin to prepare their nests, and usually commence laying

amis a Wes, & after which the female : :
Islands in May, soon ane ace and incubation commences, the males

i 7 ; as thi ces pl
about the twentieth of that month. As soon as this takes |
ain spread themselves along the shore he
‘der Duck, informs us that their first object after pairing
f a juniper bush, where it can be had;

he femal 1 in companies of four or five together.”
leave the females and ag
Brunnich, who wrote an express treatise
is to procure a suitable place for their ne
where there is no juniper, they content themselves w
any hollow place they can find. é
t out holes in rows ov the smooth sloping banks where

on the E

st, preferring the shelter o

ith tufts of sea-grass, bundles of sea-weed cast up by
ide, tl i f rocks, or Some of the Iceland proprietors of

the tide, the crevices of rocks,

-crounds, in order to accommodate them, cu

breeding
se : se ee : 3 :
they would not otherwise build, but gladly take possession of them when scooped out to hand. It is not a

little remarkable that, like several other sea-birds, they almost always select small islands, their nests being
seldom, if ever, found on the shores of the mainland or even islanoe r¢

nded a great deal of labour in actually forming islands, by separating from
isthmuses. The reason of this preference for

on a large island. The Icelanders are so well

aware of this that they have expe
the main island certain promontories joined to it by narrow ce f
islands seems to be security from the intrusion of dogs, cattle, and other land animals, to whowe viCEna
they have so great an aversion that the Icelanders are careful to remove these as well as cats from their
settlement.

«Both sexes work in concert in building their nest,
Upon this rough mattress the female spreads a bed of the finest down plucked from
as to form a thick roll quite round the nest.

laying a rather coarse foundation of drift grass, dry
tangle, and sea-weed.
her own breast and by no means sparingly, but heaping it up so
When she is necessitated to go in quest of food after beginning to sit, she carefully turns this roll of down
over the eggs to keep them warm till her return. It is worthy of remark that though the Eider Duck lays
only five or six eggs, it is not uncommon to find ten or more in the same nest, occupied by two females who
live together in perfect concord. The quantity of down in each nest is said by Von Troil to be about
half a pound, which by cleaning, is reduced by one-half. Its extraordinary elasticity appears from the fact
that three quarters of an ounce will fill a large hat; and Pontoppidan says that two or three pounds of
it, though pressed into a ball which may be held in the band, upon being allowed to expand, will fill
the covering of a large bed. It is worthy of notice, however, that it is only the down taken from the
nests which has this great elasticity ; for what is taken from the dead birds is said to be far from as light
as that the female plucks to form a bed for its young. It is on this account that it is prohibited by the laws
of Norway to kill the Eiders for their down.”—Rennie’s edit. of Montagws Orn. Dict.

“The food of the Eider,

as well as of crustacea, fishes, and the roe of both. I am not aware of its ever feeding upon vegetables

”

says Macgillivray, ‘‘ consists of bivalve mollusca, which it obtains by diving,

in its natural state; and yet when domesticated it has been found readily to eat grain. This remarkable
facility of transition from an animal to a vegetable food appears to be very common in this family of
birds, and is said to produce a corresponding change in their flesh as an article of food. That of the
Hider, under its common regimen, is, I think, fully as palatable as the flesh of the Mallard. The flight
of this bird is direct, steady, and moderately rapid, being performed by continuous quick beats of the wings,
generally low over the water. [t swims well, sitting lightly, although from the flatness of its body it seems
to sink considerably, and on diving is capable of remaining a considerable time under water.”

I agree with Audubon in believing that if this bird were domesticated it would prove a_ valuable
acquisition, both on account of its feathers and down and its flesh as an article of food; and that this would
not be a matter of difficulty is certain, since the thirteenth Earl of Derby and Mr. Selby both succeeded in
rearing young birds from the egg, which lived for more than a year ; and two males and a female are at this
moment (April 1870) living in the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent’s Park, which have
become so tame that they readily advance towards any stranger and take pieces of biscuit or other food

from his hand. This is the re surprising when we Sh iy
‘ s is the more surprising when we consider how different must be the garden enclosures
from the stormy seas and the supply of marine animals the

re obtained; it shows how readily the bird
accommodates itself to the situation in which it may

ie be placed.
Phe accompanying Plate will furnish a better idea of the diffe

ae rences in the colouring of the sexes than any
verbal description however minute.

As is the case with the generality of the Ducks, the male is not always
sented; for not only do the feathers of the head give place after the

en » >» 1 ay >» ve « C
Isorge . t hue, but by the time the female has hatched her eggs, a total change
also occurs in the plumage of the body, and during the t

- 5

I cannot conclude my account of the Eider
Teg cee : fs
Worthing, for the loan of the very fine examples
The front figure in the Plate ;
in the distance show the difference

0) beautifully adorned as there repre

pairing-season to others of a differ

months of autumn the two sexes are very much alike.
without recording my obligations to C. Montfort, Esq., of
killed by him in the Orkneys.

represents a male about four-fifths the

: natural size; the reduced ones
in the colouring of the sexes.