Page:Cassell's book of birds (IA cassellsbookofbi04breh).pdf/187

 EIDER DUCKS AT HOME.

inflicted by the beak of a brooding female, of whose presence we were quite unaware before—at the last moment—she flew away. Those females who happen to have taken up their abode in the vicinity of men will allow themselves to be taken up from the nest while their eggs are examined, after which they immediately settle down again to brood, without showing the slightest desire to escape. Frequently we have sat close to their nests for hours together, have stroked their feathers, put our hands between their bodies and their eggs to note the temperature, and yet few of them have stirred from the spot. Some of them would occasionally bite our fingers as if in play, but the majority testified neither