down of the eider duck. The eider duck plucks off the down from its breast for the purpose of making its nest, which it continues to renew as often as deprived of it, until its breast becomes quite bare.

In commerce this down is sold in balls about the size of a man's fist, and weighing from three to four pounds. It is so remarkably fine and elastic, that if one of these balls be opened and cautiously held near a fire to expand, it will fill a quilt about five feet square. Supplies of it are received chiefly from Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, where the birds abound. There are two kinds of it, sea-weed down and grass down. The former is the heaviest, but not so easily cleaned as the other.