Dec. 1885.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



181 



Gulls, which keep an enger lookout for them. 

 Now the Northman steps in with his protecting 

 hand and comes along with a pair of large 

 baskets, into one of which he puts the young 

 birds and into the other the precious down, wliile 

 he goes from nest to nest, examining them to see 

 in what ones the brood is ready to be removed. 

 Hence lie takes the young ones to the sea, while 

 tlie mother waddles along behind, well knowing 

 where he is leading her. At the shore he turns 

 the basket over and goes away, leaving it to the 

 old birds to find their own. They plunge into 

 the flock, and each siseedily gets as many of the 

 chicks as she can. After a few hours the family 

 bonds are closely sealed again, and each mother 

 has gathered her little ones around her, which she 

 treats with the most tender care, while they in re- 

 turn show the most grateful affection for her. 

 They go with the old ones into the water, crawl 

 around on their backs, and receive instruction in 

 swimming and diving for mussels, the mother in 

 the last exercise going down with a chick under 

 each wing. In the course of eight weeks the 

 young becojnc fully instructed, and are ready to 

 begin the struggle for existence on their own ac- 

 count. Now appears the Ilerr Papa again ujion 

 the scene, when there is nothing more to be done, 

 and proudly conducts the whole company over 

 the open sea to their winter home. Such is the 

 history of the best-known and most interesting of 

 the birds that people the mountains of the. North. 

 I have thought it proper to give in brief a clear 

 picture of its habits, because it forms in some re- 

 spects the central point of the motley, busy com- 

 pany. We will now sketch in broad outline a 

 general picture of one of these bird-mountains. 



The Storm Gulls are inseparable from the Eider 

 Duck. If there are ten thousand paii's of Ducks 

 on a mountain, then the number of Gulls nesting 

 there will be at least fifty thousand. They come 

 rushing up m graceful, rapid flight, presenting a 

 pleasant aspect with their snow-white and dark- 

 colored feathers. They are the real but innocent 

 betrayers of the Eider colonies, for where Gulls 

 circle in great numbers around the island one is 

 sure to find nests of down. The host is further 

 increased b}' large flocks of a kind of Snipe which 

 are distinguished by their clear voices. They are 

 the police of the mountain, thfi guardians of the 

 safety of the bird-republic; for as soon as they per- 

 ceive anything that betokens danger, say an ap- 

 proaching boat, they cry out in chorus and give 

 an alarm that instantly sets the whole population 

 in motion. The Gulls immediately send forth 

 scouts which go toward the boat, soaring, screech- 

 ing around it, swooping down iipon it with the 

 speed of an arrow, and often touching the boat- 



man with the tips of their pinions. The nisiss of 

 "the army follows the scouts. They come by 

 thousands and thousands, in so thick masses as to 

 obscure the sun. Tlie explorer is forced to come 

 to the shore veiled in this living, fluttering, 

 screeching, rushing cloud. Tlie Ducks, if they 

 are not actu.ally silling, fly, the Snipes hastily 

 seek the sea, and the Wagtails follow in noisy 

 flight, but the host of Gulls stands firm, screams 

 and bustles and whirls and plunges, as if it could 

 prevent the advance by noise and sham fighting. 

 One may walk the shore and see nothing but 

 birds and nests, and hear nothing but the discord- 

 ant din of voices, accompanied by the thunderous 

 rushing of thousands of wings lashing the air. 



A more quiet picture is alTorded by the hill 

 where the Auks brood. They resemble the Eider 

 Duck in shape, except that their bills are sharp 

 and nofttat, like those of the latter. There are 

 three species of them, which are distinguised from 

 one another by the length of the bill and its cur- 

 vature. All three species live and brood in the 

 same places. I was told of a mountain where a 

 million of them had built their nesls. I am sure 

 of one thing — that no man haseverseen a million 

 birds, even though he has traveled over half the 

 earth. Doubting the accounts, I visited the de- 

 scribed mountain. On a bright Summer day my 

 companion and myself took a boat and rowed 

 toward it, over the smooth, transparent water, be- 

 tween beautiful islands, followed by the screech- 

 ing of the startled Gulls. High above us on a 

 towering ridge we saw the watchful Ospreys ; by 

 our side, on right and left, along the shore-cliffs, 

 the sitting Eider Ducks. Finally we came to the 

 populous part of the mountain, whicli is from 

 three hundred and twenty to three hundred and 

 thirty feet high, and saw really immense numbers 

 of birds sitting (m the ridges. The higher parts of 

 the cone were covered with a brown spoonwort, 

 and as we approached the shore the birds drew 

 back thither, and suddenly disappeared from view 

 as if by concerted agreement. When we had 

 reached the shore and landed, and were wonder- 

 ing what had become of the hosts of birds, we 

 found the ground burrowed all over with holes 

 that looked like common rabbit-holes. We soon 

 learned that they were the entrances to the nest- 

 chambers of the Auks. The holes are large 

 enough to permit the birds to pass through, and 

 then widen on the inside so as to give room for the 

 nest and the two birds. As we climbed toward 

 the height, the tenants first carefully and anxious- 

 ly peered at us, then slipped out and threw them- 

 selves screaming into the sea, which was soon 

 covered, as far as the eye could reach, with birds 

 whose cry resembled the noise of a gigantic surf 



