I have consulted a Scandinavian pisciculturist, who, while not corroborating the occurrence of such vast multitudes, admitted the periodic appearance of dense local swarms, such as are sometimes seen in the lochs in the west of Scotland.
[Note 2] p. 45.—The female eider-duck plucking the male.
The popular story of the male eider being made to furnish down for the nest, after the mother-bird’s supply is exhausted, must, we fear, be regarded as a misstatement. See Newton’s Dictionary of Birds (London, 1893), and other authoritative works on ornithology. Perhaps the story has some basis in the fact that for a short time after the breeding season the males undergo a change of plumage, becoming less decorative and more like the females.
[Note 3] p. 48.—Economic value of eider-down.
According to Stejneger, each nest yields about an ounce and a third. From Greenland and Iceland alone, six thousand pounds, or the contents of seventy-two thousand nests, are yearly exported. Nordenskiöld notes that the quantity of eider-down brought from the polar lands to Tromsöe amounted in 1868 to 540 kilogrammes, in 1869 to 963, in 1870 to 882, in 1871 to 630, in 1872 to 306, and that the total annual yield may be probably estimated at three times as much.
[Note 4] p. 57.—Auks.
A graphic description of the King-auks (Alle alle), which breed in Spitzbergen, is given by Nordenskiöld in the work above mentioned.
The name auk is oftenest applied only to the razor-bills, but is also used collectively for other members of the family Alcidæ, such as guillemots and puffins.
[Note 5] p. 59.—Altrices and Præcoces.
Altrices or nidicolæ are those birds which are more or less helpless when hatched. They are often blind and naked, and unable to leave the nest. The food-yolk has been mostly or wholly used up before birth, and the young depend on what their parents bring them. Examples are doves, hawks, and passerine birds.