HISTORICAL PREFACE xxxvii. 



which of the three stations in the St. Kilda group the 

 specimens so marked came — Borreray, Stack-Lii, or Stack- 

 an-Armin, but probably the first as being the most accessible. 

 There must be a good manj^ specimens about from Stack 

 of Stack and Skerry ... in his later years, the younger 

 Dunn (Joseph) used to go there every season, but neither 



H B— — nor W. E. C was able to find me one. 



It is to you that I owe the Irish specimens and I am very 

 lucky to get any from Eldey. I cannot make out exactly 

 how many American stations there are left — the destruction 

 of birds in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and both coasts of 

 Labrador seems to have been more desperately cruel and 

 useless than anywhere else in the world. I have been 

 lately working out a good many of the old voyages into 

 these parts — my object of course has been the ' Penguin ' — 

 but one does meet with the Margaulx (Gannet) also — though 

 how many stations it has I cannot make out." 



The slaughter meted out to the unfortunate Gannets 

 and other sea-birds, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was a 

 topic which had fired his indignation before, and been 

 condemned in previous correspondence, see also liis allusion 

 in the " Dictionary of Birds " (p. 301) to what he calls " the 

 brutality of the fishermen." Nor will this attitude sur- 

 prise any one who knew Professor Newton, for in truth 

 he was constantly in the hsts fighting in the cause of 

 Bird-protection . 



What this destruction was eighty years ago may be 

 judged from the particulars obtained by Audubon, when 

 he visited the celebrated Bird-Rocks in 1833. He found 

 that the Labrador fishermen were in the habit of regularly 



