Bird-Life in Labrador. 95 



flew from them to join the dense black ring that wound around 

 and around the island. Their burrows extended far into the 

 loamy earth of which the island was composed, notwithstand- 

 ing the impediments in the shape of rocks everywhere, above 

 and below the ground. I doubt if man or animal could have 

 picked its way across this island without stepping upon or 

 breaking the earth's crust into one of these holes. They are 

 made by the bird itself, aided by its strong bill and sharp and 

 powerful claws. They are about the size of the body of the 

 bird or a little larger, and generally from two to three feet 

 deep. They wind and bend and often intermingle, much as 

 in the case of the well-known bank swallow. At the extrem- 

 ity is a very little dried grass and a single white egg, with sel- 

 dom any other marks excepting perhaps a few obsolete scrawls 

 or spots, and a general bluish or brownish tint often replacing 

 the otherwise white shell. My notes add a few remarks which 

 may be of interest : A great trick of the Labradorians is to 

 get a greenhorn to stick his hand into one of the burrows of 

 this bird when the bird is supposed to be within. If you ex- 

 amine carefully the bill of horn, nearly two inches in length 

 and about the same in height you will see that a most alarm- 

 ing pair of forceps may be thus put into motion, and, as the 

 bird is one of the fiercest of its kind, can readily imagine why 

 the victim never repeats the experiment. The number of 

 birds that I saw on Greenley Island was simply immense, and 

 could never have been counted. I have often seen the water 

 covered with a clustered flock, all engaged in making the 

 hoarse, rasping sound that has been mentioned before and is 

 not unlike the filing of a saw, that is made by both the auks, 

 and which gives all alike the name of " gudds." When on 

 the wing I seldom if ever saw them mix with other birds. 

 Though they appear in large numbers at stated times, they 

 disappear or rather disperse after breeding almost as suddenly 

 as they came ; yet stragglers do not leave until the harbors 

 are nearly or quite blocked up with ice. At Greenley Island, 

 although there is a large fish-canning establishment, houses, 



