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Some Food Birds of the Eskimos of North- 

 western Greenland. 



By J. D. Figgins. 



Possibly at no other place on the globe are birds so 

 extensively used for food and clothing, as they are in north 

 Greenland. A portion of this bleak and barren coast is 

 inhabited by a small tribe of Eskimo, commonly known as 

 the Arctic Highlanders, consisting of abont 250 individuals, 

 and divided into seven or eight settlements. Through force 

 of circumstances these natives are strictly carnivorous and a 

 large supply of meat is required, not only for their personal 

 use, but for their numerous packs of sledge dogs. Seals and 

 Walruses are the animals most hunted in order to obtain 

 food, but they are not to be depended upon entirely, as it is 

 impossible hi some years, to secure the necessary numbers. 

 Caribou are not common, and are very hard to obtain. 

 Narwhals are taken during the early spring, but usually in 

 very limited numbers and they make only a slight change in 

 the usual bill of fare. Whenever there is a shortage of Seals 

 and Walruses, — and this occurs often — the natives depend 

 almost entirely upon birds. Seals and Walruses often desert 

 a locality for a year or two, and to be prepared for this the 

 natives locate their villages as near bird rookeries as possible, 

 regardless of unfavorable conditions. The stupidity of the 

 birds renders them an easy prey for the hunters whose meth- 

 ods of capture are very simple. As soon as the birds arrive 

 in the sprmg the harvest beghis, and ceases only when an 

 abundance of other game is assured. 



While at Cape York during the summer of 1896, I was 

 invited by a party of native hunters to accompany them on an 

 expedition to the great rookery of Dovekies (Alle alle) near 



