496 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



Hatteras. On the south side of Long Island, and the neigh- 

 bouring coast, they are seen in numbers in the month of 

 October, associating with the Velvet and Scoter Ducks. In 

 the summer they also penetrate into the Arctic regions of 

 both continents, are seen on the coast of Newfoundland, 

 and occasionally in Greenland. In Iceland they breed and 

 are seen in great flocks. They are also equally common to 

 the north-west coast of America. 



These birds abound in Norway and the Hebrides, parti- 

 cularly on some of the least accessible of the islands. Ac- 

 cording to Dr. Harvey, Bass Island, not more than a mile 

 in circumference, has, in the months of May and June, 

 its surface almost wholly covered with nests, eggs, and young 

 birds, so that it is scarcely possible to walk without treading 

 on them ; and the flocks of birds are so prodigious, when 

 in flicrht, as to darken the air like clouds, and their noise so 

 stunning that it is scarcely possible to hear your next neigh- 

 bour. Looking down towards the sea from the top of the 

 precipice, you see it on all sides covered with multitudes of 

 birds, swimming and chasing their prey ; and if in sailing 

 round the island you survey the hanging cliffs, you may 

 see on every crag, or fissure of the rocks, numberless birds 

 of various sorts and sizes ; and seen in the distance, the 

 crowding flocks passing continually to and from the island 

 can only be compared to a vast swarm of bees. 



The rocks of St. Kilda are no less frequented by the 

 Gannets, and Martin assures us, that the inhabitants of that 

 small island consume annually, no less than 22,000 young 

 birds of this species, besides a vast quantity of their eggs, 

 these, being in fact, their principal support. This supply, 

 though spontaneous from nature, is not obtained without 

 imminent hazard of life to those who engage in procuring 

 these birds and their eggs ; as besides climbing difficult and 

 almost inaccessible paths among the rocks beetling over the 



