SEA-BIRD NUMBERS AND MAN lOI 



Few Other species of birds are taken at all importantly in the 

 Faeroes. Few young shearwaters are eaten, a few young kittiwakes, 

 and a few terns' eggs. There is a small eiderdown industry at two places; 

 but as at present conducted the exploitation of eiderdown in the Faeroes 

 and Iceland is a very 'scientific' custom which involves the taking or 

 destruction of no eggs whatsoever, and is therefore not fowling in the 

 strict sense. 



In Iceland wild-fowling is still carried on systematically; the 

 fowlers use ihefleyg (p. 98) (in the Westmann Islands) but rely more 

 on the collection of eggs and the killing of young birds in autumn. 

 The eggs most commonly taken are those of both Uria guillemots. 



Psittacosis was discovered in the fulmars of Iceland shortly after 

 those of the Faeroes ; and the taking of young fulmars has now been 

 forbidden. Previous to the psittacosis outbreak up to nearly 60,000 

 fulmars were killed in some years in Iceland, but after 1925 it was never 

 more than 50,000, after 1927 not more than 40,000 and after 1933 

 not more than 30,000. The last annual total before the psittacosis 

 regulations in 1939 was 22,231. Of these by far the most were taken, 

 in the Myrdalur area of South Iceland, the Westmann Islands and 

 Grimsey. It is rather interesting to note that since the fulmar-fowling 

 stopped there has been a decrease in the population of fulmars in 

 both Grimsey and the Westmann Islands. In both these places the 

 inhabitants have started taking the eggs of fulmars, now that the 

 taking of their young has been prohibited. On St. Kilda it was the 

 general opinion that while fulmar eggs were extremely palatable their 

 taking should be very strictly limited. If a fulmar's egg is taken it 

 does not lay a replacement; its breeding cycle is broken, it goes 

 prematurely into moult and leaves the colony in a week or two. 

 But the taking of a young fulmar from a cliff has no effect upon its 

 parents or their breeding cycle; indeed, they are unlikely to be aware 

 of it, since most fowlers take fulmars when they are fat on the ledges, 

 having already been deserted by their parents, or when they are resting 

 on the water after their first glide down to the sea before they can really 

 fly. It seems reasonable to suppose that a fulmar whose egg is taken 

 might respond to the interference with its breeding cycle sufficiently 

 to move its breeding-quarters in a subsequent year; whereas there is 

 no possibility of response on the part of an adult fulmar to the taking 

 of its well-grown young. 



Apart from fulmars it has been the Iceland custom to take very 

 large numbers of puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and gannets. 



