144 DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



In Scotland there is no record of such heinous slaughter 

 as darkens the path of the early exploiters of the natural 

 wealth of America. Yet here too, the simplicity and defence- 

 lessness of the Garefowl made for its ultimate disappearance. 

 Causes other than its food value operated against ft. It was 

 unable to fly and perforce had to nest upon the seashore, 

 where eggs and young lay exposed to the easy attacks of 

 beasts and birds, as well as of man. Its solitary egg told 

 against it, for this slow multiplication offered no chance of 

 recuperation from the destruction which dogged the Gare- 

 fowl's landward migrations. 



All that is known of its history in Scotland marks the 

 stages of decay reduction in numbers through man's de- 

 liberate destruction, curtailment of range, and final extermina- 

 tion. When man first reached Scotland the Garefowl was 

 widely distributed upon the coast of Britain. Its remains 

 have been found in the Cleadon Hills of Durham, and the 

 early immigrants of Azilian culture who settled in Oronsay 

 made use of it for food, as their kitchen-middens clearly show. 

 Even in early historic times it occurred in regions whence 

 it had long disappeared before written history takes up its 

 story; for its bones were discovered in a refuse-heap, prob- 

 ably of the Broch period, in the ancient harbour-mound at 

 Keiss in Caithness. 



So long ago as 1684 it was recorded from the Outer 

 Hebrides, and here only and in the Orkney Islands are 

 definite records of its having bred in Scotland. Apart from 

 a few odd references its story is mainly connected with 

 St Kilda, where it used to arrive in considerable numbers in 

 the spring time, seeking the shore from its winter home on 

 the wide sea, in order to lay its solitary egg and hatch its 

 young. One can trace in the accounts of successive visitors 

 to the island its gradual reduction in numbers, for it was 

 slain for its flesh, its oil and its feathers, until it became 

 a rare and occasional visitor and at last disappeared. Sir 

 George M'Kenzie of Tarbat in an account sent to Sir Robert 

 Sibbald, apparently before 1684, merely mentions the "Gare- 

 Fowle" amongst other common sea-birds of St Kilda, as if it 

 merited no special description. It seems still to have been 

 common in Martin's time, since his account of his visit to 

 the island in 1697, faithfully describes the Gairfowl, first 



