ATLANTIC MURRE 173 



which offered lodging room for countless sea fowl, domiciled in their 

 summer homes to rear their young. Most conspicuous, at a distance, 

 were the broad white bands of nesting gannets on the wider ledges; 

 hovering above and about the rock was a restless cloud of snowy 

 kittiwakes, while a steady stream of birds from the varied throng 

 flowed constantly around it. Between the bands of gannets we could 

 see, as we drew near, row upon row of smaller, black birds standing 

 in seried ranks, shoulder to shoulder, on the narrow ledges scattered 

 over the face of the cliff. These were the murres and the Briin- 

 nich's murres standing on or near their eggs in their customary atti- 

 tude, facing the cliff and with their backs to the sea; the report of 

 a gun brought a sudden change, as they faced about showing their 

 white breasts and began pouring off the rock in hundreds to circle 

 about it in a bewildering maze, or plunging downwards to the sea 

 to settle in the water and watch proceedings. 



Bird Rock is now the main stronghold of this and several other 

 species south of the coast of Labrador, where once these seabirds bred 

 in such profusion. The following quotation from Audubon's (1840) 

 graphic pen will give some idea of the abundance of this species 

 there in his time: 



Not far from Great Macatina Harbor lie the Murre Rocks, consisting of 

 several low islands, destitute of vegetation, and not rising high from the 

 waters. There thousands of guillemots annually assemble in the beginning 

 of May to deposit each its single egg and raise its young. As you approach 

 these islands the air becomes darkened with the multitudes of birds that fly 

 about; every square foot of the ground seems to be occupied by a guillemot 

 planted erect, as it were, on the granite rock, but carefully warming its cher- 

 ished egg. All look toward the south, and if you are fronting them, the snowy 

 white of their bodies produces a very remarkable effect, for the birds at some 

 distance look as if they were destitute of head, so much does that part assimi- 

 late with the dark hue of the rocks on which they stand. On the other hand, 

 if you approach them in the rear, the isle appears as if covered with a black 

 pall. 



On one occasion, whilst at anchor at Great Macatina, one of our boats was 

 sent for eggs. The sailors had 8 miles to pull before reaching the Murre 

 Islands, and yet ere many hours had elapsed the boat was again alongside, 

 loaded to a few inches of the gunwale with 2,500 eggs. Many of them, how- 

 ever, being addled, were thrown overboard. The order given to the tars had 

 been to bring only a few dozens, but, as they said, they had forgotten. 



Mr. William Brewster (1883), when he visited this region in 1881, 

 found the murres still breeding on Parroquet Island near Mingan, of 

 which he writes : 



When we first saw the place the water was covered with murres, and hun- 

 dreds were sitting on their eggs along the ledges of the western end of the island. 

 But a week later, when we landed there, the colony had been practically anni- 

 hilated by Indians, and the few birds remaining were so shy that I could not 

 get near any of them. All that I saw, however, seemed to belong to the present 

 species. 



