^°'- 1^^"^] Beetz, Notes on the Eider. 289 



or a bird of prey — the female Eider, who has her brood with her, 

 goes on ahead and even tries to draw on herself the danger by 

 simulating a wounded bird and leading the enemy from her young. 

 All this time she emits croaking cries resembling Croou Croou Croou. 



In some years weasels pass the summer on the shore and make 

 great destruction of the eggs of the Eider. 



But the greatest destroyer of the Eider is without doubt Larus 

 marinus, the gull with the black mantle, called English Gull or 

 Great Black-backed Gull, which during the years when there are 

 not enough little fish to feed its young, kills with ease all the young 

 Eiders that it finds. Flying at a great height this Gull sees its prey 

 from afar, and as the young Eider (up to about ten days of age) 

 dives but a very short distance, by sailing just above the water the 

 Gull is able to watch it constantly, and follow it, until, when the 

 young is so fatigued that it is unable to dive more, the Gull seizes it 

 with its powerful beak. If during the journey to the nest, the young 

 still struggles in the beak, the Gull carries the duckling to a height 

 of 30 or 40 rods, and, calculating the strength of the wind, drops 

 it on the rocks where it is killed. The Gull immediately follows 

 and picks up the dead body. 



In the same manner the Great Black-backed Gull breaks the 

 mollusks whose shell is too hard to crush with its beak. I have 

 seen in a very strong wind this Gull rise to a height of fifty rods, let 

 lose its prey at more than twenty rods to windward of the rocks and 

 have seen the prey fall directly on the rocks ; often the rock is only 

 three or four rods in circumference but never have I seen the bird 

 make a miss. Happily for the conservation of the Eider this Gull 

 is diminishing every year in numbers owing to the destruction of 

 its eggs.^ 



Migration. The four species of Eiders mentioned above arrive 

 in the spring time here on the north shore between the April 15 and 

 June 15; in the last month. May 15 to June 15 — only the two 

 northern species S. mollissima borealis and S. spedabilis pass. All 



• The people of the coast do not need any argument like the above to incite them to 

 exterminate this splendid Gull. The eggs and the young birds are excellent eating and are 

 eagerly sought everywhere. Man is of course the chief destroyer of the Eider as of all the 

 water birds of the Labrador Peninsula. If proper methods of conservation of the Eider 

 were adopted there would be no need to fear the effect of the toll taken by the Great Black- 

 backed Gull. C. W. T. 



