THE CONSERVATION OF BIRDS. 265 



egg-collecting, and probably the most important one in the 

 United States, from a financial stand-point, is that of the Faral- 

 lones. These islands, or rather rocks, situated on the coast of 

 California, thirty miles west of the Golden Gate, are the breed- 

 ing-grounds of myriads of sea-birds, chiefly western gulls 

 (^Larus occidentaUs) and murres, or California guillemots {Uria 

 troth Calif ornica). For nearly iifty years murre eggs were 

 collected here and shipped to San Francisco market, where 

 they found a ready sale at from twelve to twenty cents a 

 dozen, a price only a little less than that of hens' eggs. During 

 the season, which lasted about two months, beginning near 

 the middle of May, the eggs Avere shipped regularly once or 

 twdce a week. The main crop was gathered on South Faral- 

 lone, the principal island, and mainly from the ' great 

 rookery' at the w^est end. The birds lay only one e^^ 

 wiiich is deposited on the bare rock. When the season 

 opened the men went over the ground and broke all the eggs 

 in sight, so as to avoid taking any that Avere not perfectly 

 fresh. The ground was then gone over every day, and the 

 eggs Avere systematically picked up and shipped to market. 

 The business AA^as in the hands of Italians and Greeks, who 

 Avere also engaged in fishing, and, although a dozen or fifteen 

 ' eggers' Avere employed on the islands, the number of eggs 

 gathered Avas simply enormous. It is said that in 1854 more 

 than five hundred thousand eggs Avere sold in less than tw^o 

 months, and that between 1850 and 1856 three or four mill- 

 ions Avere taken to San Francisco. . . . Since then the value 

 of the eggs has declined, and the number has fallen off con- 

 siderably. In 1884 there Avere gathered three hundred thou- 

 sand, in 1896 about one hundred and eight thousand, Avhile 

 in 1896 the crop was reduced to a little less than iiinely-tAVo 

 thousand." 



As a cause of reduction in the number of sea-birds, egging 

 undoubtedly is entitled to first place. Millinery shooting, 

 though e(|ually destrnclivc in oixTation, was Ix'^ini al a date. 



