82 USEFUL BIRDS. 



This tribute of flesh, blood, and feather is levied largely 

 upon those orders of birds which in domestication become 

 poultry, and in the wild state are known as game birds ; but 

 many small land birds have become victims of man's greed, 

 and the sea birds have been forced to contribute to his food 

 supply. 



The eggs of certain Gulls, Terns, Herons, Murres, and 

 Ducks that breed in large colonies find a ready sale in the 

 market, or furnish a part of the food supply of the people 

 who live near these breeding places. Wholesale egging was 

 carried on along the coast of Massachusetts and other New 

 England States, until the Gulls and Terns were in most cases 

 driven away from their breeding places. The inhabitants 

 along the shores of the southern States, as well as those 

 on the Pacific coast, gathered the eggs of the sea birds by 

 boatloads for many years. For nearly fifty years Murres' 

 eggs were collected on the Farallone Islands and shipped 

 to the San Francisco market. It is said that in 1854 more 

 than five hundred thousand eggs were sold there in less than 

 two months. This must have been an important item in the 

 food supply of the young and growing city. Mr. H. W. 

 Elliot mentions that on the occasion of his first visit to 

 Walrus Island in the Behring Sea six men loaded a badarrah, 

 carrying four tons, to the water's edge with Murres' eggs. 

 On Laysan, one of the Hawaiian Islands, there is a great 

 breeding place of an Albatross (Diomedea immutabilis) . 

 Such immense quantities of their eggs have been gathered 

 that cars have been loaded with them. 1 All this egg collect- 

 ing, however, should be stopped, for it tends to exterminate 

 the birds, and all the eggs needed for human consumption 

 can be produced by poultry. 



Sea birds which breed on isolated islands or barren shores 

 feed mainly on animal food, which they get from the sea. 

 Guano consists of the excreta and ejecta of sea birds, mixed 

 with the remains of birds, fish, and other animals. It is found 

 on the gathering places of these birds. In the rainless lati- 



1 A Review of Economic Ornithology in the United States, by Dr. T. S. 

 Palmer. Yearbook, United States Department of Agriculture, 1899, pp. 271, 272. 

 See this paper also for an account of the guano trade. 



