But the mystery was explained when M.Fridrikssen informed me that this tranquil personage was only a hunter of the eider duck, whose under plumage constitutes the chief wealth of the island.

This is the celebrated eider down, and it requires no great rapidity of movement to get it.
Early in summer the female, a very pretty bird, goes to build her nest among the rocks of the fiords with which the coast is fringed.
After building the nest she feathers it with down plucked from her own breast.

Immediately the hunter, or rather the trader, comes and robs the nest, and the female recommences her work.

This goes on as long as she has any down left.

When she has stripped herself bare the male takes his turn to pluck himself.