THE OOLU(aST> 



67 



No raj' of suuli^ht ilhimiues these 

 scenes, but the stars shine with a 

 splendor never noticed before, the 

 aurora sheds a ros\- twilight glow over 

 the northern heavens, and the moon 

 seems to turn night into day. 



When at length the stars fade, and 

 the grey sky and reddening horizon 

 give notice that the night is over and 

 the sun is soon to rise again, the lish 

 that have escaped capture, having de- 

 posited their eggs in their native Avaters 

 tiepart aga'n tc '-.'ir usual haunts. 



The lishiug season is over, the well 

 laden vessels sail or steam away to 

 their native ports, or to their markets 

 in various parts of the world, and the 

 Norsemen are hit alone upon their is- 

 lands. 



Are they to remain idle, then, and 

 without means of gaining a livelihood 

 for the rest of the year" By no means, 

 for though the tish are too scarce to pay 

 them for casting their nests there is 

 another harvest coming that is to yield 

 them a good income. 



Those islands are the breeding places 

 of various kinds of sea birds whose in- 

 stinct prompts them to return to the 

 same place year after year to deposit 

 their eggs and rear their young. A sea 

 Ijird may spend its life in the waters 

 and seldom visit the land, but there are 

 two occasions on which it invariably 

 returns to the place where it was 

 hatched. One of these is the nestirfg 

 season, and the other is at the approach 

 of death. Whenever a bird feels that it 

 is about to die, no matter what part of 

 the world it may have wandered to, it 

 always hastens back over hundreds, 

 perhaps thousands, of miles of ocean to 

 end its life at the place where it was be- 

 gun. 



When with each returning spring 

 the mating instinct reawakens, the 

 birds return to lay their eggs on the is- 

 land where they themselves were 

 hatched. Swimming or Hying they ap- 

 proach the islands in constantly in- 



creasing Hocks until it would seem that 

 the feathered crealui'es over the whole 

 ocean were gathering at one spot. 



The shy and unapproachal^le birds 

 that usually dart out of sight at the first 

 appearance of a ship are now so domin- 

 ated by the one overpowering instinct 

 that they forget their fear of man, and 

 approach their nesting places by thous- 

 ands, or perhaps, by millions, unde- 

 terred by the sight of the human inhab- 

 itants. 



Each species of hinis lias its favorite 

 nesting place. Some choose the beet- 

 ling crag.s. that overhang the surf, 

 others choose the islands towering like 

 mountains of rock above the waves, 

 and nest only in the clefts and fissures 

 inaccessible to man, but the most val- 

 uable birds, the Eider Ducks, are con- 

 tent with the low islands with gentlj'- 

 sloping sides. In fact it would be im- 

 possible for them to ascend a very steep 

 slope for tht'V are the most aquatic of 

 all the water bii'ds, being scarcely able 

 to tly, while their walk is the most help- 

 less waddle imaginable. 



Water is their native element and 

 I hey seldom, if ever visit the land, ex- 

 cept at the nesting season. It is in 

 the water that they disr-lay all their 

 skill and adroitness in eluding pursuit 

 or in taking their prey. They can staj' 

 under watc for five minutes, which is 

 a long time even for a Duck. They can 

 dive to a depth of 160 feet and as their 

 food consists mostly of mussels and 

 other animals found on the bottom they 

 rai'ely visit waters deeper than this. 



Arriving at their island they waddle 

 slowly and lal)oriously over it, search- 

 ing through ever}' drift of sea weed, 

 every hollow and cluster of dry twigs 

 for a suitable nesting place. The pres- 

 ence of the Norseman does not disturb 

 them for they are, for a time, as tame 

 as domestic fowls and will invade his 

 premises and even make their nest in 

 his house. 



When a Duck has found a suitaljlc 



