2 THE WILSON BULLETIN No. 106 



extinction during one period of its history, not yet forgot- 

 ten by the oldest of the people. After one of the famines, 

 acompanied by a plague in which most of the tribe died, 

 the survivors lost the art of making the kayak, or skin boat, 

 for summer hunting. Consequently, throughout the open 

 season, after the ice had gone out, they were unable to kill 

 any sea-food, and since at the same time caribou formed 

 no part in their cuisine, they had to depend entirely upon 

 the millions of birds that frequented the cliffs and islands 

 of the coast. Before the ice went out of the Fjords all the 

 Eskimos repaired to the cliffs of the great bird rookeries, 

 where they could obtain all the birds they needed for food, 

 and stayed there until the ice froze again and permitted 

 the killing of seal and other sea game. This period of de- 

 pendence upon birds for sustenance for at least two months 

 of each year ended with the immigration of a small band 

 of Eskimos from Baffin Land, who revived the lost arts of 

 kayak-building and caribou-hunting, a remarkably good 

 example of the influence that an immigrant people may 

 have upon the life of the people among whom they come. 



Water-birds form the greater part of the bird-food of 

 the Eskimos; of the land-birds only the ptarmigan plays 

 an important role. All the small land- and shore-birds, 

 the raven and the falcon are eaten, but they comprise no 

 essential part of the Eskimos' dietary as do the ptarmigan 

 and the water birds. 



Even the ptarmigan (Lagopus rupestris reinhardi) is 

 not so very important a food-bird, and except in the fall, 

 when it is migrating southward in great numbers, the Es- 

 kimos rarely hunt for it particularly. Generally they kill 

 it only when they happen to find it near the shore, as they 

 sledge from one place to another, when they are hunting 

 hare or caribou, or when they are attending their hare- 

 snares or fox-traps. When the ptarmigan is migrating 

 southward, and numerous flocks stop to feed on the heather 

 slopes of the high rocky shores, the Eskimos often consider 

 it worth their time and effort to hunt them. The ptarmi- 



