THE BIRDS 377 



past the breeding place of myriads of guillemots, which 

 are now to be laid under contribution. At the ap- 

 proach of the vile thieves, clouds of birds rise from the 

 rock and fill the air around, wheeling and screaming over 

 their enemies. Yet thousands remain in an erect posture, 

 each covering its single egg, the hope of both parents. 

 The reports of several muskets loaded with heavy shot are 

 now heard, wiiile several dead and wounded birds fall 

 heavily on the rock or into the water. Instantly all the 

 sitting birds rise and fly off affrighted to their companions 

 above, and hover in dismay over their assassins, who walk 

 forward exultingly, with their shouts mingling oaths and 

 execrations. Look at them ! See how they crush the 

 chick within its shell, how they trample on every egg in 

 their way with their huge and clumsy boots. Onward 

 they go, and when they leave the isle, not an egg that they 

 can find is left entire. . . . The light breeze enables them 

 to reach another harbour a few miles distant, one which 

 like the last lies concealed from the ocean by some rocky 

 isle. Arrived there, they react the scene of yesterday, 

 crushing every egg they can find. For a week each night 

 is passed in drunkenness and brawls, until, having reached 

 the last breeding place on the coast, they return, touch at 

 every isle in succession, shoot as many birds as they need, 

 collect the fresh eggs, and lay in a cargo." 



The days of commercial egging have long since passed 

 and the laws against egging and shooting the nesting birds 

 are now fairly enforced in Canadian Labrador. In New- 

 foundland Labrador, however, there seems to be no pre- 

 tence of bird or egg protection. The inhabitants and the 

 summer fishermen appear to consider the eggs and the 

 breeding parents as godsends to eke out their scanty larder. 

 Knowing every rock on the coast as these men do, they can 

 easily keep in touch with the birds and rob them of their 



