BIRD-CATCHING IN NORWAY. 521 



Those that leave their eggs, and come again to them in 

 the hollow cracks and holes of the cliffs and rocks, where 

 hundreds are lying together, never miss their own, though a 

 man could not distinguish them." 



The fowl being thus valuable to the inhabitants of this 

 wild coast, various devices are naturally resorted to, to effect 

 their destruction. 



Many birds, for instance, such as puffins, guillemots, and 

 the like, which usually nest amongst heaps of stones, or 

 fragments of rock that have fallen from the cliff, or it may 

 be in holes of their own making, are captured by means of 

 dogs, of which, in places, each individual possesses several. 

 These animals, which are well trained to the purpose, are, 

 under the guidance of their owner, turned loose at an early 

 hour in the morning, when separating in every direction, each 

 dog is presently seen to station himself on the watch, near 

 to the hole, where he has seen the old bird enter with food 

 for the young. And as the parents at that season are con- 

 stantly on the move in tending their offspring, the dog has 

 not, in general, to keep guard very long. So soon, there- 

 fore, as the bird comes out again, he pounces upon and de- 

 stroys it. If it happen, however, that the puffin, catching 

 sight of the enemy in time, retreats into its hole, it is either 

 brought out by the dog, which at times gets rather roughly 

 treated by the bird's sharp bill, or is extracted by means of a 

 sort of cork-screw, or a hook, fastened to the end of a long 

 and pliant stick. 



Occasionally numbers of puffins breed in the same hole ; 

 in which case it sometimes happens, Pontoppidan tells us, 

 that the bird first seized by the dog grasps hold of its neigh- 

 bour, and it in turn the next in succession, and so on 



