THE WATER-BIRDS. 251 



powerful than itself. The early fishermen sought great auks 

 on the barren northern islands in nesting time, slaughtered 

 them right and left with clubs, and salted their flesh. This 

 ruthless destruction could have but one result. Only a few 

 skins, eggs, and bones in museums remain as tangible evi- 

 dences of this once abundant bird. 



Another branch of the auk family, including several species 

 which have been and still are to some extent severely perse- 

 cuted, comprises the Guillemots, or egg-birds. In this case 

 it is not the birds themselves so much as their eggs that 

 attract marauders. Each spring the guillemots congregate by 

 thousands on certain rocky islands and shores to deposit their 

 eggs. In such vast numbers do they come that they fairly 

 cover the ground while incubating. The eggs are quite pala- 

 table while fresh, but most of them are sold for use in the 

 arts, the albumen they contain being a requisite in several 

 industries, such as the manufacture of patent leather and in 

 clarifying wine. Gathering the eggs of this and other sea- 

 birds was formerly a fixed occupation for a class of rough 

 characters known as eggers, who regularly plied their trade 

 while the season lasted. In order to insure fresh eggs, they 

 would first break every egg on the ground, then come daily 

 afterwards for their harvest. An easy way to smash the eggs, 

 and one often followed, was to roll barrels back and forth 

 over the whole nesting-place. Egging was carried on so per- 

 sistently that the number of birds became seriously decreased, 

 and our Eastern States as well as the Canadian government 

 have prohibited it. 



The following extract from Audubon's "Eggers of Labrador" 

 presents a vivid picture of the people and their business as he 

 saw them there. "The vessel herself is a shabby thing: her 

 sails are patched ; her sides are neither painted nor even 

 pitched ; no, they are daubed over, plastered and patched 

 with strips of seal-skin along the seams. Her deck has never 

 been washed or sanded ; her hold — no cabin has she — though 



