Bird-Life in Labrador. 73 



twenty or thirty birds are thus knocked down by a party of 

 two or three persons with double-barrel guns. Turning back 

 a few pages I find the habits of the eiders more fully de- 

 scribed : Monday, September 27. This morning a party of 

 us went out in a boat for a short sail, taking our guns with 

 us. The water was full of birds, especially of ducks and auks. 

 My attention was called [)articularly to the "sea ducks," of 

 which we shot several from iiocks that chanced to fly near 

 enough to us. As th.e sea or eider duck is one of the pecu- 

 liar residents of this region a few remarks upon it, collected 

 from the experience of a year's observation, may not be uninter- 

 esting. The sea duck, as it is here called, and by the word 

 here I mean all along the coast from Mingan — if not from 

 Quebec — to Red Bay, and perhaps even beyond the Straits 

 of Belle Isle, is the eider duck of the naturalist. The first 

 specimens we obtained were shot September 27, and were 

 young birds. We saw a great many small companies of birds 

 scattered here and there about the harbor, but they were 

 generally, at this season, composed of old birds and their 

 broods of young ; the latter were now large enough to kill 

 and were excellent eating. In hunting these birds, especially 

 the old ones, one is obliged to proceed with the greatest caution. 

 A good-sighted hunter will detect a flock or a single duck, 

 in rough water even, at a great distance. This is probably due 

 to the fact of living in a region where one must dej>end so 

 much upon eyesight that that sense is remarkably quickened: 

 the duck also see the hunter almost as quickly as it is seen by 

 him. When the duck sees any suspicious object it reaches its 

 neck to its fullest extent and takes a long though careful sight: 

 if the hunter sees this movement he knows that he is suspect- 

 ed ; if he at once remains perfectly still, the duck is outwit- 

 ted, since, not seeing the object move, it supposes that it is 

 some stone or ])iece of wood before unnoticed and continues 

 its feeding ; should the hunter move visibly, ever so little, the 

 bird takes fright and is off at once. In a clear day a person 

 peering cautiously over a slight eminence can see, especially 



