DESTRUCTION FOR FOOD 



H5 



among sea-birds, "being the stateliest as well as the largest 

 Sort." It is probable that Martin saw many alive, for he 

 says that "it comes without Regard to any Wind, appears 

 the ist of May and goes away about the middle of June" 

 and his own visit to St Kilda extended from ist of June 

 almost to the end of the month, the period when the islanders 

 would be most actively engaged in collecting the birds for 

 their winter stores. Yet in the account of St Kilda in his 



Fig. 35. Bones of the extinct Garefowl from kitchen-midden at Keiss, Caithness. nat. size. 



i. Upper portion of beak 2. Right and left wing bones (humeri) (inverted). 



3. Right and left leg bones (tibio-tarsi). 



Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, published in 

 1703, Martin mentions only the Solan Goose and the Fulmar 

 as being the most important of all the birds to the inhabitants. 

 Perhaps already the Garefowl had fallen from its rank with 

 these birds, although in Martin's own opinion in 1697 it took 

 its place with them in the island's economy. 



A few years later, the minister of St Kilda, Rev. Mr 

 A. Buchan, in an account written between 1708 and 1730, 



