2 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 12-No. 1 



three voyages have often been made, and when 

 one considers that duruig the height of this 

 egging business as many as four vessels were 

 kept a-going, it is easy to see what a vast num- 

 ber of eggs were taken away. But to get a lit- 

 tle nearer to the exact figures. I will say that a 

 good voyage was expected to turn out about 

 fifty puncheons of eggs, and as there ai-e about 

 two and a half barrels in a puncheon and as each 

 barrel holds fifty dozen of eggs a little figuring 

 will show, allowing nothing for the eggs thrown 

 away and those broken in gathei'ing, that each 

 trip a vessel made meant the destruction of at 

 least six thousand two hundred and fifty dozen 

 Murre eggs. This class of men are always 

 ready to say "well you cannot blame us for 

 the lack of birds, we never shot or killed one 

 in any way,"' but their ears are closed when 

 one tells them that in sapping their prolific 

 forces they have taken a still sui'er though 

 more subtile nieans of extermination. 



But the fishermen should be held responsible 

 for the greatest general destruction. During 

 the fishing season every bay and sheltered place 

 will have its proportion of from one to twenty 

 fishing schooners anchored there for protection. 

 During the weeks the men are all busy out in 

 their dories fishing, but their Sundays are their 

 own and are generally spent on the islands gath- 

 ing eggs and shooting birds, and they stop at 

 nothing but shoot everything which flies wheth- 

 er eatable or not, and shoot just for the sport 

 they find in destruction ; and as they keep it up 

 during the whole season the poor birds have 

 but a slim show. 



But to come back to our starting place again, 

 Esquimaux Point; after leaving here we sail for 

 about thirty miles by well wooded islands and a 

 comparatively inviting coast, but then for a dis- 

 tance of about one hundred miles or as far ;is 

 Hegashka river, but very few islands are passed. 

 The coast is all the tin)e assuming a more bar- 

 ren aspect until, when anchor is cast in Mus- 

 quarro bay, about thirty miles beyond Hegashka 

 we find we are again among an abundance of 

 small islands, but this time devoid of all trees 

 except a few stunted spruces ; the coast rising 

 back one hill above another in almost barren 

 nakedness, clothed with nothing but white dry 

 moss, upon which the caribou live in winter. 

 From here to Cape Whittle the coast is abund- 

 antly studded with islands, varying in size 

 from rocks just out of the water at high tide, 

 up to others of a hundred or two acres in ex- 

 tent. Once at Wolf Bay and settled in the 

 comfortable house of Gilbert Jones I felt at 

 home and ready for work. 



The following notes relate almost exclusively 

 to the sea birds where the gi'eater part of my 

 time was spent. The land birds I know but lit- 

 tle about. 



Urinator imbe7\ J joon. Rather rare. Said to 

 breed exclusively on fresh water lakes on the 

 mainland, but seen at intervals on salt water 

 where they come to feed. 



Urinator lunniic. Red-throated Loon. Rather 

 common and generally distributed along the 

 coast. Breeds on the edges of the smaller 

 ponds (often near pools of surface water only 

 a few rods square), on the larger islands they 

 make no nest but simply lay their eggs in a 

 slight hollow on the bare ground, usually on 

 a slight rise not over one foot from the water's 

 edge. The space about the egg is perfectly 

 bare, the gi-ass or other vegetation being tram- 

 pled flat. Hence the spot is easily discovered, 

 and the bird if sitting can be seen for a consid- 

 erable distance. Seven sets of eggs taken, each 

 contained two, which from all I heard or saw 

 is the greatest number ever laid. 



Fratercula arctica, Puffin. At the entrance of 

 Wolf Bay is Wolf island, which accommodates 

 the largest colony of Pufiins I heai-d of on the 

 whole coast. The island coveres an area of 

 about two or three hundred acres and the 

 whole surface is covered with Puffin bur- 

 rows. In many places they are so thick that 

 one cannot step without sinking the foot into 

 one and as likely as not come down onto the 

 back of the inmate, but it never seems to hnrt 

 them as they scramble out and away they go. 

 These bui'rows look from the outside like a 

 Woodchuck hole and are about the exact size, 

 but they are seldom over four feet deep and 

 generally take an abrupt curve near the open- 

 ing and run along usually near the surface of 

 the ground. Several that 1 opened curved in 

 such a waj^ that the nest, which is an enlarged 

 cavity at the end of the burrow with a little 

 straw laid on the bottom, was exactly under 

 the entrance and only a thin crust of soil be- 

 tween the two. My method of opening them 

 was to put in my arm above the elbow and 

 throw up the soil, then advance it again and 

 the second time generally made the nest acces- 

 sible and almost invaribly the parent bird was 

 found sitting. About a dozen nests I examined 

 held two eggs and the balance of about a thou- 

 sand, contained but one each ; the greater part 

 of the eggs were a plain, dull white, others 

 were more or less thickly spotted with con- 

 cealed chocolate markings deepening on some 

 into reddish-brown, and about a dozen speci- 

 mens were covered with deep and distinct 



