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, while 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 
ean 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 
