252 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



at present empty sends forth an odor pestilential as a charnel- 

 house. The crew, eight in number, lie sleeping at the foot 

 of their tottering mast, regardless of the repairs needed in 

 every part of her rigging. . . . As I suspect her crew to be 

 bent on the commission of some evil deed, let us follow her 

 to the first harbor. The afternoon is half over. Her crew 

 have thrown their boat overboard ; they enter and seat them- 

 selves, each with a rusty gun. One of them sculls the skiff 

 towards an island for a century past the breeding-place of 

 myriads of guillemots, which are now to be laid under contri- 

 bution. At the approach of the vile thieves, clouds of birds 

 rise from the rock and fill the air around, wheeling and 

 screaming over their enemies. Yet thousands remain in an 

 erect posture, each covering its single egg, the hope of both 

 parents. The reports of several muskets loaded with heavy 

 shot are now heard, while several dead and wounded birds 

 fall heavily on the rock or into the water. Instantly all the 

 sitting birds rise and fly off affrighted to their companions 

 above, and hover in dismay over their assassins. . . . See 

 how they crush the chick within its shell, how they trample 

 over every egg in their way with their huge and clumsy boots. 

 Onward they go, and when they leave the isle not an egg that 

 they can find is left entire. The dead birds they collect and 

 carry to their boat. Now they have regained their filthy 

 shallop ; they strip the birds by a single jerk of their feathery 

 apparel, while the flesh is yet warm, and throw them on 

 some coals, where in a short time they are broiled. The rum 

 is produced when the guillemots are fit for eating, and after 

 enjoying themselves with this oily fare, and enjoying the 

 pleasure of this beastly intoxication, over they tumble on the 

 deck of their crazed craft, where they pass the short hours 

 of night in turbid slumbers. . . . On Guillemot Isle the birds 

 have again settled and now renew their loves. Startled by 

 the light of day, one of the eggers springs to his feet and 

 arouses his companions. . . . The master, soon recollecting 



