Note 2 — THE BIRD-BERGS OF LAPLAND.

[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.