Author’s preface
Acknowledgements
Part 1.
How the eider
lives without Man
Chapter 1.1 How the eider lives
without Man
An epitome
of austere beauty
Kinds of
eiders
What’s
uncommon about the Common eider
Fliers and
divers
What, where
and how the eiders eat
Addresses
and diasporas
Marriage
registration. The preparation of dowry
Building
the nest. Equipping the nursery
Incubation.
Waiting for the offspring
Hatching.
The first days of life
Broods,
nurseries, and aunties
The eider’s
enemies
A long time
to reach maturity
The change
of garments
Winter
quarters
Literature
Part 2. The Common eider and its
saint patron. The starting point
Chapter
2.1. The Common eider and its saint patron. The starting point
“He
indicated for their nesting Farne Island”
Search for
the original sour
Biography and Hagiography
What
Reginald wrote
St. Cuthbert’s
garments
Conception
and formation of a legend
A minute of reality
Eider “in
law”
The eider
as the bird of St. Bartholomew; another historic possibility
Literature
Part 3. How the eider lives with Man
Chapter
3.1. When humans became acquainted with the Eider
The eiders
in archeological findings
Vikings,
sagas, and the eiders
The eider’s
first appearance in written sources
Origins of
the name “eider”
Literature
Chapter
3.2. From Cuthbert’s duck to Somateria
mollissima.
Evolution of eider description in
scientific literature
“The duck of
softest feathers” (1655)
“Wormius’
duck” and
“Cuthbert’s duck”
(1676)
“The Anas
with the unguis of the beak obtuse” (1752)
“A wild duck
called Edder” (1752-1753)
«Mollissima»
(1758)
“The Natural
History of the Eider” (1763)
“Gagka
and Gagkun” (1773)
“Something
about the Eider’s internal structure” (1778)
Eider in the
“British” and “Arctic” zoologies (1776 and 1785)
“Eider Duck”
(1832)
“A true sea
dweller” (1861)
“Female is
Gavka, and male is Gavkun” (1885)
Eider in the
First Russian Classic (1893-1902)
Life stories
of the eider (1925)
“A creature
of coasts pressed by ice” (1926)
Literature
Chapter
3.3. Feathers of all birds are equal, but some are
more equal than others. How does eider down keep one warm?
To see does
not mean to understand
The
structure of a bird feather
In search of
structure
A net full
of air
Mystery almost solved
The devil is in the detail
Unresolved mysteries of eider down
Literature
Chapter
3.4. The eider is more than just valuable down
Delicious,
with qualifications, meat, unconditionally delicious eggs, and useless down
Food for
northern journeys
Hunting the
eiders: a life necessity or a tribute to the tradition?
Literature
Chapter
3.5. The beginning of symbiosis.
The first eider farms and first eider
protection laws
When and how
did eider farms begin?
Valuable down is clean down
First eider
farms
How down was
cleaned
Early eider
protection laws
Literature
Chapter
3.6. Is Russia an eider country?
What bird is
the source of the “Bird Down”?
How much is
a “Fabulous quantity of down”?
The other
side of the coin
What did the
Russians do with the down?
Literature
Chapter
3.7. First eider protection attempts in the «non-eider» world
“Separation of all the places where gagkas live”
“To turn the down into a source of
public income”
“The
fines have to be very high”
“To rent
the islands to responsible people”
Laws not
read, recommendations not followed
“Russia’s first attempt of rational
use of polar eider”. The Trifon-Pechenga Monastery eider farm
The
eiders of Vilsandi
Literature
Chapter
3.8. Eider farming attempts in the USSR
Solovky Bio-garden: Eider farm in a
concentration camp
An eider reserve or an eider farm?
The
northernmost incubator house
Shelter
for the eiders and protection against predators
Taming
the eider
“Making the wild eider
semi-domesticated”
Collection and cleaning of down
Eider
farming on Novaya Zemlya
Agitation
and propaganda
The last
attempt
Literature
