Another species which abounds in northern latitudes is the smew (_Mergus albellus_), also known as the white nun or white merganser. This palmiped is about the size of a widgeon; is of elegant form; and its plumage beautifully coloured with black and white. Its bill is of a dusky blue, nearly two inches long, thickest at the base, and tapering into a slenderer and more narrow shape towards the point. An oval black patch, glossed with green, marks each side of the head; the under part of the crest is black; but all the rest of the head and neck, as well as the graceful breast and the belly, are white as snow, with the exception of a curved black line on each side of the upper part of the breast, and similar marks on the lower part; the back, the coverts on the ridge of the wings, and the primary quills are black; the secondaries and greater coverts are white-tipped; while the sides of the body, under the wings to the tail, exhibit a curious variegation of dark wavy lines. The legs and feet are of a leaden blue. The range of the smew is very extensive, for it migrates as far southward as the Mediterranean, while it is found everywhere in the Arctic Regions. [Illustration: A BIRD “BAZAAR” IN NOVAIA ZEMLAIA.] On the shores of Novaia Zemlaia, as on those of Spitzbergen, the sea-birds arrive in countless hosts as soon as the summer sun has removed the long and dreary spell under which Nature labours through the winter months. The narrow rock-ledges on which they congregate, and where auks and guillemots assemble in thousands, the Russians call “a bazaar.” The large gray sea-mew (_Larus glaucus_), the “burgomaster” of the Dutch whalers, prefers the lonely summits of isolated cliffs, where it can reign the monarch of all it surveys. The ivory gull (_Larus eburneus_) is seldom found in high northern latitudes; but the common gull (_Larus canus_) and the black-backed gull (_Larus marinus_) are almost as abundant as guillemots. [Illustration: THE BLACK-BACKED GULL.] In Iceland one of the most useful, and certainly not the least beautiful, of the birds is the eider-duck (_Somateria mollissima_), which also frequents the shores of Baffin and Hudson Bays, Lapland, Greenland, and Spitzbergen. It loves to breed on the small flat islands which lie off the coast, such as Akeney, Flutry, and Videy, where it is secure from the attacks of the Arctic fox. Its breeding-places in Iceland are private property, and some of them have been for centuries in the possession of the same families, which owe to the birds all their wealth and prosperity. Hence they are very vigilantly guarded. Whoever kills one is fined thirty dollars; and to secrete an egg, or pocket a few downs, is an offence punishable by law. The chief occupation of some of the proprietors is to examine through their telescopes all the boats that approach, so as to be sure that there are no guns on board. [Illustration: THE EIDER-DUCK.]