BIRDS FROM THE FARALLON ISLANDS. 33 



the afternoon, if not too tired, they collect on Seal Rock; 

 but if this is omitted, all the eggs there must be destroyed, 

 and a fresh lot laid, before any can be saved for market. 

 The second day's picking will be made on the main part of 

 the island, including all the rookeries at East End, also on 

 the North Rocks and Sugar Loaf. Picking usually com- 

 mences on Sugar Loaf, an isolated rock 185 feet high. It 

 is warmer there, and more protected from prevailing winds, 

 and, being less disturbed than the main rookeries, the 

 murres lay there first. This rock is reached by means of a 

 boat, which is left in charge of one man, while fovir or five 

 others begin gathering, working from below upwards. 

 Another man starts at once to the top and collects there, 

 meanwhile keeping the gulls away. The boat seldom 

 reaches the Sugar Loaf unnoticed by the gulls; but when 

 it does occur, the first to make the discovery raises the cry, 

 when all the gulls in the vicinity rise screaming, and fol- 

 low the men — hovering, screaming and cackling over them. 

 The Sugar Loaf is the most difficult place to collect eggs. 

 In several places ropes are made fast to enable the eggers 

 to reach the most inaccessible places. Two men have lost 

 their lives on this rock: one of them fell, last year, into the 

 sea and was never found. He had injudiciously stowed too 

 many eggs in the front of his shirt, and in passing a narrow 

 shelf the eggs actually crowded him off. Minor accidents 

 and mishaps are of almost daily occurrence. One egger, 

 having about ten dozen eggs in his shirt, fell and rolled a 

 distance of twenty feet; although uninjured, he was com- 

 pletely soaked with egg. As a rule, the eggers get consid- 

 erably spattered by the excrement from the birds whirling 

 overhead. 



Before proceeding further it will be well to notice closely 

 the men who engage in this nest robbing extraordinary, and 

 the methods they employ. The eggers are Italians and 

 Greeks, usually those who have been engaged in fishing 



2d Ser., Vol. I. Issued January 19, 1888. 



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