UTILITY OF BIRDS. 225 



inhabit northern regions, visiting our shores and other temperate 

 climates when the ice has invaded their summer home. In their 

 migratory journeys they must trust to their wings which, how- 

 ever, as already observed, are very short. They are consequently 

 not possessed of long powers of flight, and skim the surface of the 

 water, rarely rising much above the surface. Their progress, 

 however, is sharp and rapid, but of short duration. The Guille- 

 mots during winter are frequently seen in immense numbers on 

 .Rock-all Bank and on the banks of Newfoundland. So little are 

 they alarmed at the approach of a vessel, that should they be 

 directly in her track, they will only dive to save themselves. 

 These banks are several hundred miles from land. 



The whole race of aquatic birds of which we have spoken, whether 

 Divers, Penguins, Grebes, or Guillemots, are, in these northern 

 regions, a valuable resource, where vegetation almost entirely 

 ceases. The poor people whose lot compels them to live there 

 obtain in their feathers, skin, oil, and eggs, clothing, food, and 

 light during their long and gloomy winter. But to obtain 

 what they truly consider a blessing from heaven, they have to 

 surmount innumerable difficulties, the birds often building their 

 nests in islets almost unapproachable, or on rocks rising perpen- 

 dicularly out of the water. Slung upon seats hung from the 

 summits of these crags, the courageous islanders suspend them- 

 selves, in the breeding season, to gather and make, so to speak, 

 a harvest of the sea-fowls' eggs. Some of these men walk along 

 the rocky coast, furnished with a conical net attached to the 

 end of a pole, which enables them to secure the birds flying 

 around them, much in the same manner as boys catch butterflies 

 in the meadows. 



But chasing these graceful swimmers at the foot of their rocky 

 retreat is mere trifling ; the dramatic and dangerous incidents occur 

 at the summit of the steep, giant cliffs. The intrepid inhabitants 

 of the Feroe Islands, which are situated to the north of Scotland, 

 between Norway and Iceland, in the Atlantic Ocean, proceed as 

 follows in the search after eggs. The fowler begins operations 

 by swarming, as schoolboys call it, up a pole, which carries 

 him to the first projecting ledge of the rocks. This point attained, 

 he throws a knotted rope to his companions, who soon join him on 



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