236 A DAY'S "SHOOT." 



they receive from the sailors the name of '' guds," from a fancied 

 resemblance to that sound. When on the wing I seldom if ever 

 saw them mix with other birds. Though they appear in large num- 

 bers, at stated times, they disappear, or rather disperse after breed- 

 ing, almost as suddenly as they came ; yet stragglers do not leave 

 until the harbors are blocked up with ice. At Greenley Island al- 

 though there is a large fish-curing establishment, houses, and a 

 light-house on the northeast end of the island, the birds occupy 

 the other side unmolested, and are seldom interfered with by gun- 

 ners ; yet the island is scarcely three-quarters of a mile long in its 

 longest direction, and even less than half a mile wide. Though I 

 have used up much space for this bird, I can but finish Dr. Coues' 

 most interesting description of this strange species of the feathered 

 tribe, especially as it accords so nearly with our own experience. 

 He says : — 



" Hardly had our boat touched the shore than we leaped out, 

 guns in hand, and at once scattered over the island. As we wan- 

 dered along the sides, the affrighted birds darted past us like arrows, 

 issuing from their burrows beneath our feet and around us, and all 

 making directly for the water. Those already disturbed flew in 

 every direction above us, while thousands rested on the water in a 

 dense mass at a little distance. I took my stand on a flat rock, and 

 in less than an hour a pile of puffins, more than I could carry, lay 

 at my feet. Shortly after I commenced firing the birds formed 

 themselves into an immense circle, of a diameter of perhaps a third 

 of a mile, one point of which just grazed the island. It was aston- 

 ishing to see with what precision this circle was preserved, each 

 bird flying directly in the wake of the one that preceded. I had 

 merely to stand facing the advancing birds, and no better oppor- 

 tunity for continual slaughter could be desired. I now realized 

 what I had been told, but had found hard to believe, that a wagon 

 might be filled wiih the birds by a tolerably expert workman, shoot- 

 ing them at just such a moment that they should fall into it. The 

 poor things seemed not at all aware of the nature of the danger that 

 threatened them ; flying so close past me that I could almost strike 

 them with my gun. During the continual firing the birds would 



