AMBROSE ON BIRDS FREQUENTING ST. MARGARET S BAY. 00 



the air until they di'op their excrement, which he catches and 

 devours ere it reaches the ground. He is consequently looked 

 upon with much contempt by our fowlers, but enjoys the usual 

 immunity of meanness, for the gulls are shot and eaten, whilst he 

 is suffered to escape. 



The hag-down is seldom found near the shores, but like the 

 sea-goose keeps off at a distance of not less than six or eight miles. 

 In dark and foggy weather both kinds come in occasionally, the 

 sea-goose particularly, about the end of June. Hag-downs, like 

 petrels, are very fond of scraps of fish or meat thrown overboard 

 by the fishermen, who thus lure the bii'ds to theu' destruction, the 

 hag-down flying so close to the boat as to be easily knocked doA^Ti 

 with a sprit or oar. They are very tenacious of Life, and like 

 Irishmen may be "kilt" many times by the blow of a stick, and yet 

 recoA-er. They are killed mostly for the sake of theii* feathers. 

 The bodies are generally thrown to the pigs, though some persons 

 manage to eat them, as they eat gulls and cormorants, by skinning 

 before cooking them. 



The birds most highly prized for food are eiders and coots, or 

 scoters. These are shot in large numbers at Iron-bound and Green 

 Island by the help of decoys. The ingenuity displayed in the 

 manufacture of these decoys is very creditable to oui- fishermen. 

 They are made of pine or spruce, neatly shaped, and not unfre- 

 quently covered with the skins and plumage of the birds they 

 represent. They are attached to each other by pieces of codHne of 

 various lengths, so that on the water they are distributed by the 

 winds and currents, exactly in the manner and at the relative dis- 

 tances of their liA-ing prototypes when swimming at their leisure. 

 The two famihes on Iron-bound place these decoys in good positions 

 for shooting, immediately before the arrival of the first flocks of 

 birds. For some days not a gun is fired on the island, nor a loud 

 sound heard. The birds, ariiving and finding everything still, and 

 flocks seemingly of their own kmd ah'eady in possession of quiet 

 and desii-able places for food and rest, exchange caution for emu- 

 lation, call a halt, and at once settle down. Then begins the work 

 of destruction. The decoys are quietly drawn in towards the shore 

 by the fowlers, who with muskets and large water dogs are carefully 

 concealed behind the rocks nearest the shore. The ducks follow by 



