The haunts of a bird yielding so valuable an article are carefully watched, and proprietors do everything in their power to attract them to their land; and in Scotland and Norway the districts resorted to by the Eider Ducks are strictly preserved, everything likely to disturb them being carefully guarded against. Pennant thus records a visit he paid to one of their breeding-places in the Farn Islands on the 15th of July, 1769:--"I found the Ducks sitting," he writes, "and I took some of the nests, the base of which was formed of sea-plants and covered with the down. After separating it carefully from the plants it weighed only three-quarters of an ounce, yet was so elastic that it filled a greater space than the crown of the largest hat. These birds are not numerous on the isles, and it was observed that the Drakes kept on the side most remote from the sitting-places. The Ducks continue on the nest till you come almost to them, and when they rise, they are very slow fliers. The eggs are of a pale olive colour, large, glossy, and smooth; they are from three to four, warmly bedded in down." Sir George Mackenzie, in his "Travels in Iceland," says that "the boat in its approach to Vidöe passed multitudes of Eider Ducks, which hardly moved out of the way; and between the landing-place and the governor's house it required some caution to avoid treading on the nests, while the Drakes were walking about even more familiar than common Ducks. The Ducks were sitting on their nests all round the house, on the garden wall, on the roof, in the inside of the house, and on the chapel." The locality where the Eiders make their nests is always difficult of access. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Iceland, Lapland, and the coasts of the North Sea invariably secure them. The harvest which is derived from these birds is the source of a considerable revenue, eider-down being, in fact, a very large article of commerce. The rocks where the Eider Ducks lay their eggs are private property, and are handed down in families just as if they were the most valuable possessions. THE COMMON TEAL. ENGLISH SYNONYMS.--Common Teal: Montagu, Selby. Green-winged Teal. LATIN SYNONYMS.--_Anas crecca_: Linn., Latham, Flemming, Temminck, Jenyns. _Querquedula crecca_: Bonaparte, Selby, McGillivray. FRENCH SYNONYM.--_Canard Sarcelle._ [Illustration: Fig. 94.--Common Teal (_Anas crecca_).]