BIRDS AS FOOD 219 



swiftest way to annihilate any species of wild 

 bird, egging when conducted in a conservative 

 manner need not be productive of harmful results. 

 A living example of this is to be found in the 

 eider-ducks of Iceland. For more than a thou- 

 sand years these birds have supplied the Iceland- 

 ers with food, clothing, and bedding ; and yet they 

 are as numerous as they were in the beginning. 

 The colonists took care never to kill more birds 

 than were necessary for their needs. Although 

 the Icelander, after several incursions, secures 

 from ten to a dozen duck eggs every season from 

 each nest, he makes certain that enough are left 

 so that the population of the ducks will not suf- 

 fer. 



The world in general, unfortunately, has not 

 followed the Icelander's example. If it had done 

 so there would be many more birds alive than 

 there are to-day. Many great colonies have been 

 destroyed or thoroughly disorganized by the in- 

 roads of egg hunters. And this has been the fate 

 of most rookeries along the American coast. 

 Until State legislation put a stop to it, every egg 

 more than one inch in diameter that could be 

 found along the Atlantic seaboard was considered 

 fair booty for the egg merchant. 



From Nova Scotia northward such sea-fowl as 

 auks, murres, cormorants, ducks, and geese were 

 wont to breed in vast numbers. Yearly their 

 breeding-grounds were devastated until the actual 



