dry plains of King Charles's Southland, as already observed. (Captain Philip Parker King, in London Geogr. Journal, vol. i.; Captain Fitzroy, in ditto, vol. vi.; and Captain Basil Hall's Journal.) FUEL is any combustible matter employed for the purpose of creating and maintaining heat. In the early ages of the world, wood must have constituted, as indeed in many countries it does to this day, the principal fuel employed. Wood consists chiefly of three principles: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The two former are both of them highly combustible; and the last principle is especially so, and is the principal cause of the flame with which wood is well known to burn. When the smoke occasioned by the combustion of wood is found inconvenient, or when the fuel is required to last for a longer period in a given bulk, then charcoal is employed, which is merely wood that has undergone imperfect combustion, so as to expel its hydrogen and oxygen, and to leave the greater part of the carbon. Another kind of fuel, which doubtless was early in use on account of the facility with which it is obtained from its nearness to the surface, is peat, or, as it is sometimes called, turf: this is a congeries of vegetable matter, in which the remains of organization are more or less visible. Peat is the common fuel of a large part of Wales and Scotland, and of many districts of England, where coal is not readily procured. In this country, however, coal furnishes the great supply of fuel, and its various kinds are employed in different ways and for different purposes according to its nature and that of the substance to be acted on by its agency. When coal, by a process analogous to that by which charcoal is procured from wood, is freed from its more volatile constituents, hydrogen, oxygen, and azote, it is converted into coke; it then burns with but little flame and comparatively little smoke, and is used for giving an intense degree of heat in the reduction of most metallic ores, especially those of iron. In some cases a mixture of coke and charcoal is very advantageously employed, especially in assaying in the small way. The mixture gives out a great degree of heat while burning, and being more combustible than coke alone, small furnaces, in which the draught is less powerful than in larger ones, are particularly adapted for its use; and though it consumes faster than coke, it lasts longer, gives a greater heat, and is more economical than charcoal alone. In some countries, even the dried excrement of animals is used as fuel: and from the use of camel's dung the formation of sal ammoniac was derived in Egypt; this salt subliming from the excrement during its combustion. In small chemical operations, as for the blow-pipe, tallow or wax candles are frequently employed; and in lamps, oil, spirit of wine, or pyroxilic spirit, and even carburetted hydrogen gas, are used, either for the purpose of boiling or evaporating small quantities of fluids, or dissolving various bodies in different menstrua. During the combustion of different kinds of fuel, the products vary thus, when wood, coal, wax, tallow, oil, alcohol, or carburetted hydrogen is employed, the principal products are carbonic acid gas and water; when charcoal is used, carbonic acid is almost the only volatile substance formed, for the hydrogen which the wood contained is expelled by the process of charring. FUENTE RABIA, or FONTARABIA. [GUIPUZCOA.] FUERTAVENTURA. [CANARIES.] FUGGER, a German family, originally of Augsburg, that amassed great wealth in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by commerce, and especially by the monopoly of the spices, which they drew from Venice, and with which they supplied Germany and other parts of the Continent. The Fuggers were created counts by Charles V. in 1530, to whom they had lent large sums of money; and a story is told of their lighting a fire of cinnamon-wood with his bond or bonds for the amount, in the presence of Charles, who happened to be a visiter at their house in passing through Augsburg. They also supplied Philip II. with money, and two of their family contracted with the Spanish government for the mines of Almaden. [ALMADEN.] The family became divided into several branches, one of which obtained the rank of princes of the German empire, under the title of Fugger Babenhausen, near Ulm. The family continue to this day, and their domains are partly in Bavaria and partly in Würtemberg. The Fugger family, in the sixteenth century, made a liberal use of their wealth, in founding charitable institutions, such as the one still called Fuggerei [AUGSBURG]; in promoting learning, collecting MSS., and forming valuable libraries. Several members of the family were themselves men of learning; among others Ulrich Fugger, born about 1520, was for a time a confidential attendant of Pope Paul III., but afterwards returned to Germany, and had several valuable MSS. of classic authors which he had collected printed at his own expense. He engaged as his printer Henri Estienne, with a handsome salary. His family being dissatisfied with his expenditure, obtained an order from the civil courts taking away from Ulrich the administration of his property under the pretence of incapacity; but the order was ultimately rescinded, and he was restored to his rights. He died in 1584 at Heidelberg, leaving his fine library to the Elector Palatine and several legacies to poor students. Another Fugger wrote a history of Austria, published at Nürnberg in 1668. Philip Edward Fugger, born in 1546, added greatly to the library and cabinet of antiquities begun by his ancestors at Augsburg, and distinguished himself by his munificence. Otho Henry Fugger, count of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn, born in 1592, served with the Spanish army in Italy, and afterwards raised troops in Germany for the Emperor Ferdinand II. during the Thirty Years' War. (Imhoff, Notitia Imperii; Moreri's Dictionary, art. Fugger;' Almanach de Gotha.) FUGUE, in music, a composition in which a Subject, or brief air, passes successively and alternately from one part to another, according to certain rules of harmony and modulation. Such is Rousseau's definition, which would have been more complete if he had added that the Fugue is also formed after rules peculiar to itself. The term seems to have originated about the middle of the fifteenth century, and is commonly supposed to be derived from the Latin word fuga (flight), because the theme, or point, flies from part to part; but this etymology is by no means satisfactory, though we certainly have no better to offer Writers on music enumerate many kinds of Fugue, the chief of which are, the Strict Fugue, the Free Fugue, the Double Fugue, and the Inverted Fugue; to which we shall add that species-for it decidedly belongs to the Fugue genus-called Imitation. In a Strict Fugue,' says Dr. Crotch (Elements of Composition), the subject is given out by one of the parts, then the answer is made by another; and afterwards the subject is repeated by a third part, and, if the fugue consist of four parts, the answer is again made by the fourth part after which the composer may use either the subject or the answer, or small portions of them, in any key he pleases, or even on different notes of the key.' In this severe kind of composition, when the subject, or leader, or point, or dux, or by whatever name the theme may be designated, is comprised between the tonic and the dominant, the answer (or Comes) must be given in the notes contained between the dominant and the octave. Ex.: C Subject. Answer. The chorus He trusted in God,' in the Messiah, is a fine specimen of this sort of fugue, to which we refer the reader; for few are without that sublime oratorio in some form. In the Free Fugue much more latitude is allowed the composer; he is not so restrained by the subject, but may introduce what Albrechtsberger terms episodes-passages not closely related to the theme, though they should never be very foreign to it. The overture to the Zauberflöte affords a splendid example of this species. The Double Fugue consists of two or more subjects, moving together, and dispersed among the different parts. Dom. Scarlatti's in D minor is a double fugue which has no superior of its kind. The first few bars of this will more clearly explain than words can do the nature of so elaborate a species of composition. Fugues of more than two subjects are classed, not very correctly, among double fugues; they are however rare, for which reason perhaps they have never received a distinguishing name. Of these the fugue of four subjects in the finale to Mozart's grand symphony in C, and that of the same description in Handel's Alexander's Feast, the chorus' Let Old Timotheus yield the prize,' are master-pieces of their kind. All of this species must be considered as free fugues. The term Fugue by Inversion requires little explanation. In this the theme is inverted, as the name implies, but the effect arising out of such contrivance is appreciable only by those who know its difficulty, and estimate its merit by the quantity of labour it has cost. In the Fugue by Augmentation, the notes of the answer are doubled in length. In the Fugue by Diminution, exactly the reverse takes place. There are also other kinds of Fugue, but they are now almost forgotten, and it would be waste of paper and print to revive their names. Imitation is a species of fugue, and by theorists is generally treated on previously to and as the precursor of the latter. As the word indicates in this kind of composition, the theme is more or less imitated in the different parts. It is not, says Fux (Gradus ad Parnassum), required that every note should be imitated, but only some part of the subject; and Imitation is rather to take place in the middle than in the commencement of a composition. It may be made in any of the intervals, and in fact is governed by scarcely any rule. The learned contrapuntist just named gives the following as an example of Imitation in the Unison : The effect of technical imitation in music is unquestionably | great; it is felt by all who have the slightest skill in the art, therefore employed by all great composers of every school, antient and modern. Canon, which is sometimes called a perpetual fugue, may perhaps be admitted, though cautiously, as part of a course of professional study, but should rarely, if ever, be allowed to pass the boundaries of the school. [CANON.] Fugue, but not of the pedantic or fantastic kind, should be an object of serious attention with those who are ambitious of becoming great composers, though in its severe form it ought to be almost confined to cathedral music and to the oratorio, and is admissible there only when introduced with great discretion, and guided by the hand of an experienced sensible master. But without that which is here to be understood by the term imitation-or the recurrence, in some shape, of the chief subject -music in parts, of even a very simple kind, loses one of its greatest beauties. Let it be used however with a view solely to effect: if resorted to for the mistaken purpose of displaying what a young or a dull composer may call his learning, imitation will prove to be nothing better than mere plodding, and capable of exciting no emotion except that which is the very reverse of pleasing. FULCRUM. [LEVER.] FULDA, a province of the electorate of Hesse-Cassel, between 50° and 51° N. lat,, and 9° and 10° E. long., is bounded on the north-east by Saxe-Weimar, on the east and south-east by Bavaria, and on the west by the grandduchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. Its area is about 880 square miles, and its population about 126,600. It contains part of the former grand duchy of Fulda (a considerable portion of it having been united to Bavaria in 1815), the principality of Hersfeld, and the seigniory of Schmalkalden. The former territory of Fulda was one of the oldest ecclesiastical endowments in Germany. having been founded by Bonifacius and his colleague Sturm, in the year 744; it ceased however to be under episcopal jurisdiction in 751, was evived as a bishoprick in 1752, fell to the prince of NassauOrange as a secularized principality in 1803, was incorpo rated by Napoleon with the grand-duchy of Frankfort in 1810, and in 1815, after being ceded to Prussia, was immediately afterwards made over to Hesse-Cassel. The soil is not so rich as that of other parts of the electorate; the country is intersected by branches of the Rhön and Vogel ranges, and watered by the Fulda, Kinzig, Werra, Haune, and other rivers. It produces corn, flax, potatoes, an timber, in considerable quantities. The rearing of cattle is one of the principal occupations of the inhabitants: among the mineral productions are brown coal, potter's clay, and small quantities of salt. The province is divided into the circles of Hersfeld, Schmalkalden, Hünfeld, and Fulda, and contains five towns, seven market villages, and 198 other villages, together with about 17,200 houses. Besides Fulda, the chief town, the principal towns are Hersfeld, on the Fulda, and Geiss, a walled town, with a spacious market place, a castle, 2 churches, about 670 houses and 6400 inhabitants, and manufactures of woollens, dimity, serges, and leather. Schmalkalden, on the Schmalkalde, surrounded by walls, with 3 suburbs, the 2 castles of Wilhelmsburg and Hessenhof, 2 churches, 2 gymnasia, and salt-works producing annually about 620 tons. The population is about 4850. Large quantities of iron and steel ware are made here, besides salt, stockings, white lead, arms, buttons, pipeheads of Meerschaum, woollen yarn, &c. This was the place where the Protestant princes of Germany formed a league for their mutual defence in 1531, after six great assemblies held here B2 between 1529 and 1540. The Schmalkald articles were also promulgated from this spot in 1537. Steinbach, a market village on the Hasel, with about 390 houses, and 2500 inhabitants, who manufacture iron-ware. Hünfeld on the Haune, a town with walls, 2 churches, about 280 houses, and 1800 inhabitants, with manufactures of linens, and some trade in yarns: and Brotterode, an irregularly built town, 1708 feet above the level of the sea, with about 350 houses, and 2100 inhabitants, and manufactures of tin, tobacco, brass and steel ware, &c. FULDA, the capital of the province, and the seat of its government and law courts, is about 60 miles north-east of Frankfort on the Main, at an elevation of 834 feet above the level of the sea; in 50° 34' N. lat., and 9° 44′ E. long. It is built on the banks of the Fulda, which is crossed by a handsome stone bridge. Fulda is a pretty town, with eight suburbs outside its walls. The walls, which are decayed, have seven gates. Its population, which was 7468 in 1810, and 8150 in 1817, is at present about 9600; the houses are about 1100. It contains a market-place and two squares, one of which is a public promenade, with rows of linden trees, an electoral palace and grounds, eleven churches, one of which is Lutheran, a Roman Catholic Lyceum, which was instituted out of the funds of the university, founded in 1734, a Protestant high-school, a chapter seminary, a school in which forest economy is taught, and another for educating teachers, an hospital, public library, &c. It is the residence of the Roman Catholic bishop for the electorate, and has a handsome cathedral or minster, built between the years 1700 and 1712: it is memorable as the place of sepulture of St. Bonifacius, whose remains were deposited below an altar in an underground chapel in 755, the year of his death. The manufactures of Fulda are on a confined scale, and consist of linens, woollens, stockings, saltpetre, leather, articles in wood, &c. The mineral spring, on St. John's Hill near the town, resembles the Seltzer water. About five miles out of Fulda is the electoral country-seat called the Fasanerie, where there are valuable collections of paintings, china, and subjects in natural history. St. Bonifacius's Well, in the midst of some well laid out shrubberies, is also close to the town. FULGENTIUS, FABIUS CLAUDIUS GORDIANUS, bishop of Ruspina, a town on the coast of Africa, was born about A.D. 464. His father Gordianus, who was a senator of Carthage, was obliged to leave his native city during the persecutions of the Vandals, and retired to Telepte, in the province of Byzacium, where Fulgentius passed the early years of his life. He is said to have made great progress in his studies, and to have acquired an accurate knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages. In consequence of his attainments, he was appointed at an early age to receive the public revenues of the province; but he resigned his office soon after his appointment, and retired to a monastery in the neighbourhood. After enduring many persecutions on account of his opposition to the Arian doctrines, he resolved to go into Egypt to visit the celebrated monks of that country. From this design he was dissuaded by Eualius, bishop of Syracuse, on the ground that the monks of the East had withdrawn from the Catholic communion, and accordingly he proceeded to Rome, A.D. 500. On his return to his native country, the Catholic clergy elected him bishop of Ruspina; but he did not enjoy his dignity long, being exiled to Sardinia, together with the other Catholic bishops of that part of Africa, by Thrasimond, king of the Vandals. His learning, his austere manner of living, and his frequent controversies with the Arians, procured him the universal respect of the Catholic clergy, who considered him the greatest ornament of the African church in that age. Curiosity led Thrasimond to recal him to Carthage, where he held disputes with the king on the debated points of the Arian controversy; but as he was unable to convince the monarch, he was obliged to return to Sardinia, where he remained till A.D. 522, when the death of Thrasimond and the succession of Hildericus to the throne occasioned the recal of the Catholic bishops. Fulgentius returned to Ruspina, and resided there till the time of his death, which happened either in A.D. 529 or 533. His works were printed at Paris, in a 4to. volume, in 1684. With regard to his style, Dupin remarks, that St. Fulgentius did not only follow the doctrine of St. Austin, but also imitated his style. He had a quick and subtle spirit, which easily comprehended things, set them in a good light, and explained them copiously, which may ap pear unpleasant to those who read his works. He loved thorny and scholastic questions, and used them sometimes in mysteries. He knew well the holy Scriptures, and had read much the works of the fathers, particularly those of St. Austin.' His principal works are:-I. "Three Books to Thrasimond, king of the Vandals, on the Arian Controversy;' II. "Three Books to Monimus.' The first supports the opinions of Augustine on the doctrine of predestination; the second explains the sacrifice of Christ and the passage in 1 Cor. vi., 6, But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment;' the third contains remarks on the Arian interpretation of John i, 1, The word was with God.' III. Two Books to Euthymius, on the Remission of Sins,' to show that God will pardon sins only in this life; IV. A Book to Donatus, on the Trinity;' V. "Three Books on Predestination, to John, a priest, and Venerius, a deacon;' VI. A Book on Faith;' VII. Letters on various religious Subjects,' written principally during his exile. (Dupin's Bibliothèque Ecclésiastique, vol. v., p. 13-21; Eng. Trans. ; Acta Sanctorum, vol. i., Januar., p. 32.) FULGENTIUS FERRANDUS, who is frequently confounded with Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspina, lived in the beginning of the sixth century. He was a disciple of the bishop of Ruspina, whose life he wrote. He was also the author of an 'Abridgment of the Canons,' and finished engaged at the time of his death. a treatise addressed to Reginus, on which his master was (Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 109: Eng. Trans., 1826.) FULGENTIUS, FABIUS PLANCIADES, is said to have been a bishop of Carthage, and to have lived in the sixth century. He wrote a work on Mythology, in three books, addressed to a priest of the name of Catus, which was printed for the first time at Milan, in 1487. There is another work of Fulgentius, entitled 'Expositio Sermonum Antiquorum ad Chalcidicum Grammaticum,' which is usually printed with the works of Nonius Marcellus. (Fabricii, Bibliotheca Latina, lib. ii., c. 2.) FULGURITES are vitrified sand tubes, supposed to have the Germans blitzröhre. originated from the action of lightning; they are called by pastor Herman, at Massel in Silesia; and they were again These tubes were discovered in the year 1711 by the discovered in 1805 by Dr. Hentzen, in the heath of Paderborn, commonly called the Senne, and he first attributed their formation to the agency of lightning. These tubes have since been found in great number at Pillau, near Königsberg, in Eastern Prussia; at Nietleben, near Halle on the Saale; at Drigg in Cumberland, and some other places. At Drigg, the tubes were found in the middle of sandbanks forty feet high, and very near the sea. In the Senne they were most commonly found on the declivities of mounds of sand, about thirty feet high; but sometimes in cavities, which are stated to have been hollowed in the heath, in the form of bowls, 200 feet in circumference, and 12 to 15 feet in depth. terual diameter was 2 inches; those of the Senne, reckonThese tubes are nearly all hollow. At Drigg their exing from the surface, are from one quarter to seven lines internal diameter; but they narrow as they descend lower, and frequently terminate in a point: the thickness of the tube varies from half a line to one inch. These tubes are usually placed vertically in the sand; but they have been found at an angle of 40°. Their entire length, judging from those which have been extracted, is from twenty to thirty feet; but frequent tranverse fissures divide them into portions from half an inch to five inches in length. times however, at a certain depth, this tube divides into Usually there is only one tube found at a place; sometwo or three branches, each of which gives rise to small lateral branches, from an inch to a foot in length; these are conical, and terminate in points, inclining gradually to the bottom. and very brilliant, resembling hyalite. It scratches glass, The internal part of the tubes is a perfect glass, smooth their form, are surrounded by a crust composed of agglutiand gives fire with steel. All the tubes, whatever may be nated grains of quartz, which have the appearance, when examined by a glass, of having undergone incipient fusion. The colour of the internal mass of the tubes, and especially that of the external parts, depends upon the na ture of the sandy strata which they traverse. In the superior beds, which contain a little soil, the exterior of the tubes is frequently black; lower down the colour of the tube is of a yellowish grey; still lower, of a greyish white; and lastly, where the sand is pure and white, the tubes are almost perfectly colourless. That the cause of these tubes is correctly attributed to lightning is shown by some observations presented to the Royal Society, in 1790, by Dr. Withering. On opening the ground where a man had been killed by lightning, the soil appeared to be blackened to the depth of about ten inches; at this depth, a root of a tree presented itself, which was quite black; but this blackness was only superficial, and did not extend far along it. About two inches deeper, the melted quartzose matter began to appear, and continued in a sloping direction to the depth of eighteen inches; within the hollow part of one mass, the fusion was so perfect, that the melted quartz ran down the hollow, and assumed nearly a globular figure. Professor Hagen, of Königsberg, has made a similar observation. In the year 1823 the lightning struck a birch tree at the village of Rauschen; on cautiously removing the earth, Professor Hagen found, at the depth of a foot, the commencement of a vitrified tube, but it could not be extracted from the sand in pieces of more than two or three inches in length; the interior of these fragments was vitrified, as usual; several were flattened, and had zigzag projections. It is also to be observed, that Saussure found on the slaty hornblende of Mont Blanc small blackish beads, evidently vitreous, and of the size of a hemp-seed, which were clearly the effects of lightning. Mr. Ramond has also remarked on the Pic du Midi, in the Pyrenees, some rocks, the entire face of which is varnished with a coating of enamel, and covered with beads of the size of a pea; the interior of the rock is totally unchanged. FULHAM. [MIDDLESEX.] FU'LICA. [RALLIDE.] FULIGULI'NÆ, a subfamily of the Anutida. The prince of Musignano (C. L. Bonaparte) arranged, under the subgenus Fuligula, those species of ducks which other modern ornithologists have distinguished by the generic titles of Somateria, Oidemia, Fuligula, Clangula, and Harelda. The prince observes, that M. Temminck, who had been opposed to all dismemberment of the great genus Anas, had at last been induced to assemble all the species of the prince's subgenus Fuligula under one genus; whence the prince argues the necessity of M. Temminck's admitting the swans and geese as distinct genera; and he observes that he cannot see any good reason why M. Temminck should have rejected the name of Fuligula, as well as Platypus, given anteriorly to the genus by Brehm, and should have imposed on it the name of Hydrobates, a term already applied by Vieillot to the genus Cinclus. (Specchio Comparativo.) Mr. Swainson (Fauna Boreali-Americana) adopts the term Fuliguline to distinguish this subfamily, under which he arranges the genera Somateria, Oidemia, Fuligula, Clangula, and Harelda. Habits, Food, &c.-The Fuligulina, or sea ducks, as they have been not inaptly named, frequent the sea principally; but many of them are to be found in the fresh-water lakes and rivers where the water is deep. The plumage is very close and thick in comparison with that of the true ducks (Anatina), and the covering of the female differs much in hue from that of the male, which when adult undergoes but little change in its dress from the difference of season. The young resemble the female in their feathered garb, and do not assume the adult plumage till the second or third year. Moulting takes place twice a-year without change of colour. In the male, the capsule of the trachea is large. The Sea Ducks are not good walkers, on account of the backward position of their feet, but they run, or rather shuffle along rapidly, though awkwardly. They swim remarkably well, though low in the water, and excel in diving, whether for amusement, safety, or food, which last consists of insects, mollusks, the fry of fish, and marine or other aquatic vegetables. They take wing unwillingly as a security from danger, relying more confidently on their powers of diving and swimming as the means of escape, than on those of flight. Though they are often strong, steady, rapid, and enduring in their passage through the air, they generally fly low, laboriously, and with a whistling sound. This subfamily may be considered to be monogamous, and the nest is frequently made near the fresh waters; the female alone incubating, though both parents, in several of the species at least, strip the down from their breasts as a covering for the eggs, which are numerous. Geographical Distribution.-The North may be considered the great hive of the Fuligulina; though some of the forms are spread over the greater part of the globe. Large flocks are seen to migrate periodically, keeping for the most part the line of the sea-coast, and flying and feeding generally by night, though often, especially in hazy or blowing weather, by day. SOMATERIA. (Leach.) Generic Character.-Bill small, with the base elevated and extending up the forehead, where a central pointed line of feathers divides it; the anterior extremity narrow but blunt; nostrils, mesial; neck, thick; wings, short; tertiaries long, and generally with an outward curve, so as to overlie the primaries. Tail moderate, consisting of 14 feathers. Bill of Eider Duck. This genus is peculiarly marine. Dr. Richardson, whose opportunities of observing the northern birds were so great, and so well used, says, that Somateriæ spectabilis and mollissima are never, as he believes, seen in fresh water; their food consisting mostly of the soft mollusca in the Arctic Sea. They are, he says, only partially migratory, the older birds seldom moving farther southwards in winter than to permanent open water. He states that some eider ducks pass that season on the coast of New Jersey, but that the king ducks (S. spectabilis) have not been seen to the southward of the 59th parallel. Audubon however says, that in the depth of winter the latter have been observed off the coast of Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, and that a few have been obtained off Boston, and at Eastport in Maine. The genus is remarkable for the high development of the exquisitely soft and elastic down so valuable in commerce, and so essential to the keeping up of the proper balance of animal heat in the icy regions inhabited by these birds. We select as our example: Somateria mollissima (Anas mollissima, Linn.), the Eider Duck. This is the Oie à duvet ou Eider of the French; Die Eidergans and Eiterente of the Germans; Oca Settentrionale of the Italians (Stor. degli ucc.); the Eider Goose, Eider Duck, St. Cuthbert's Duck, Cuthbert-Duck, or CutbertDuck, Great black and white Duck, and Colk Winter Duck, of the modern British; Hwyad fwythblu, of the ancient British; Dunter Duck, of the Hudson's Bay residents; and Mittek, of the Esquimaux. The following is Dr. Richardson's description of a male killed June, 14, 1822, at Winter Island, 66° 11′ N. lat. Colour. Circumference of the frontal plates, forehead, crown, and under eye-lid, deep Scotch blue; hind head, nape and temples, siskin-green. Stripe on the top of the head, cheeks, chin, neck, breast, back, scapulars, lesser coverts, curved tertiaries, sides of the rump, and under wing-coverts, white; the tertiaries tinged with greenish yellow, and the breast with buff. Greater coverts, quills, rump, tail and its co verts, and the under plumage, pitch black; the end of the ] is considered to be very inferior in quality, is that taken quills and tail fading to brown. Bill, oil-green. Legs, greenish yellow. Form. Bill prolonged on the lengthened, depressed forehead, into two narrow flat plates that are separated by an angular projection of the frontal plumage. Nostrils not pervious. Neck, short and thick. Wings nearly three inches shorter than the tail. Hind toe attenuated posteriorly into a broad lobe. The length of this bird was 25 inches 6 lines. Female. Pale rufous or yellowish brown with black bars; wing-coverts black, with ferruginous edges; greater coverts and secondaries with narrow white tips; head and upper part of the neck striped with dusky lines. Beneath, brown with obscure darker blotches. Young at the age of a week. Of a dark mouse colour, thickly covered with soft warm down. from the dead bird. The down of superior quality, or live down, is that which the duck strips from herself to cherish her eggs. Its lightness and elasticity are such, it is asserted, that two or three pounds of it squeezed into a ball which may be held in the hand will swell out to such an extent as to fill a case large enough for the foot covering of a bed. It is collected in the following manner: The female is suffered to lay her five or six eggs, which are about three inches in length and two in breadth. These, which are very palatable, are taken, and she strips herself a second time to supply the subsequent eggs. If this second batch be abstracted, the female being unable to supply any more down, the male plucks his breast, and his contribution is known by its pale colour. The last deposit, which rarelv consists of more than two or three eggs, is always left; for sake the inhospitable place; whereas, if suffered to rear if deprived of this their last hope, the bereaved birds fortheir young, the parents return the following year with their progeny. The quantity of down afforded by one fepound neat, the quantity weighing nearly a pound before it male during the whole period of laying is stated at half a is cleansed. Of this down Troil states that the Iceland company sold in one year (1750) as much as brought 8507. sterling, besides what was sent to Glückstadt. Young male. Like the female; and not appearing in the full adult male plumage till the fourth year. Geographical Distribution.-The icy seas of the North appear to be the principal localities of this species. Captain, now Major Edward Sabine, enumerates it among the animals which were met with during the period in which the expedition under Captain Parry remained within the Arctic circle. He mentions it as abundant on the shores of Davis' Straits and Baffin's Bay; but adds, that deriving its food principally from the sea, it was not met with after an article are not unlikely to be objects of peculiar care The haunts of birds capable of producing so valuable the entrance of the ships into the Polar Ocean, where so little open water is found. The females were without the tricts resorted to by them are reckoned valuable property, we accordingly find that in Iceland and Norway the disbands on the wings described by authors. (Appendix to Cap- and are strictly preserved. Every one is anxious to induce tain Sir W. E. Parry's First Voyage, 1819-20.) The late the Eiders to take up their position on his own estate; and lamented Captain Lyon saw the Eider in Duke of York's when they show a disposition to settle on any islet, the proBay. (Journal) Captain James Ross (Appendix to Cap-prietor has been known to remove the cattle and dogs to the tain Sir John Ross's Last Voyage), notices vast numbers of mainland in order to make way for a more valuable stock, the king duck as resorting annually to the shores and islands which might be otherwise disturbed. of the Arctic regions in the breeding season, and as having ficial islets have been made by separating promontories In some cases, artion many occasions afforded a valuable and salutary supply from the continent; and these Eider tenements are handed of fresh provision to the crews of the vessels employed in down from father to son like any other inheritance. Not those seas. Speaking of the eider duck he says, it is so si- withstanding all this care to keep the birds undisturbed, milar in its habits to the king duck, that the same remarks they are not, as we shall presently see, scared by the apply equally to both. In Lapland, Norway, Iceland, Green-vicinity of man, in some places at least. We proceed to land, and at Spitzbergen, the eider duck is very abundant; give the personal observations of some of those who have and it abounds also at Bering's Island, the Kuriles, the Heb-visited Eider settlements:- When I visited the Farn rides, and Orkneys. In Sweden and Denmark it is said to Isles,' writes Pennant (it was on the 15th July, 1769), I be more rare, and in Germany to be only observed as a pas- found the ducks sitting, and took some of the nests, the senger. Temminck states that the young only are seen on the coasts of the ocean, and that the old ones never show the down. After separating it carefully from the plants, it base of which was formed of sea-plants, and covered with themselves. Captain James Ross, in the Appendix above weighed only three-quarters of an ounce, yet was so elastic alluded to, speaking of the eider down, says that the down of the king duck is equally excellent, and is collected in These Lirds are not numerous on the isles; and it was obas to fill a larger space than the crown of the greatest hat. great quantities by the inhabitants of the Danish colonies in served that the drakes kept on those most remote from the Greenland, forming a valuable source of revenue to Den- sitting-places. The ducks continue on their nests till you mark. A vast quantity of this down, he adds, is also collected on the coast of Norway, and in some parts of Sweden. slow fliers. The number of eggs in each nest was from three come almost close to them, and when they rise are very The eider duck is found throughout Arctic America, and is to five, warmly bedded in the down, of a pale olive colour, said to wander, in severe winters, as far south to sea as the and very large, glossy and smooth.' Horrebow declares capes of the Delaware. From November to the middle of that one may walk among these birds while they are sitting February, small numbers of old birds are usually seen to- without scaring them; and Sir George Mackenzie, during wards the extremities of Massachusetts Bay, and along the his travels in Iceland, had an opportunity, on the 8th June coast of Maine. A few pairs have been known to breed on at Vidöe, of observing the Eider ducks, at all other times of some rocky islands beyond Portland, and M. Audubon the year perfectly wild, assembled for the great work of infound several nesting on the island of Grand Manan in the cubation. The boat, in its approach to the shore, passed Bay of Fundy. The Prince of Musignano notes it as rare multitudes of these birds, which hardly moved out of the and adventitious in the winter at Philadelphia. The most way; and, between the landing-place and the governor's southern breeding place in Europe is said to be the Fern or house, it required some caution to avoid treading on the Farn Isles, on the coast of Northumberland. nests, while the drakes were walking about, even more was like the cooing of doves. The ducks were sitting on Habits, Reproduction, &c.-Willughby, quoting Wor-familiar than common ducks, and uttering a sound which mius, says that the Eider Ducks 'build themselves nests on the rocks, and lay good store of very savoury and welltasted eggs; for the getting of which the neighbouring people let themselves down by ropes dangerously enough, and with the same labour gather the feathers (Eider dun our people call them), which are very soft and fit to stuff beds and quilts; for in a small quantity they dilate themselves much (being very springy) and warm the body above any others. These birds are wont at set times to moult their feathers, enriching the fowlers with this desirable merchandize.' Willughby also remarks that when its young ones are hatched it takes them to the sea and never looks at land till next breeding time, nor is seen anywhere about our coasts.' This early account is in the main correct; but there are two kinds of Eider down: the live down, as it is termed, and the dead down; the latter, which of Labrador-where, by the way, the down is neglected*M. Audubon saw them in great numbers on the coast Audubon says that the eggers of Labrador collect it; but, at the same traffic must cease. time, make such havoc among the birds, that at no very distant period the |