298 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



which represent roughly the numbers killed by the Labrador natives. 

 Brant are less molested, as they keep farther out from shore. 



In Canadian Labrador the laws against shooting the nesting birds 

 and egging are now fairly well enforced, we were told. Our own 

 brief observations on the small piece of Canadian Labrador we saw, 

 would seem to bear this out. On Newfoundland Labrador, which 

 includes a coastal strip extending from Blanc Sablon on the southern 

 coast easterly to Cape Charles, and thence north along the eastern 

 coast, there seems to be no pretence of bird or egg protection. 



It is perhaps natural that the fishermen should consider the eggs 

 and young and even the breeding parents as godsends to eke out their 

 scanty larder. Knowing every rock as they do, along the entire coast, 

 they can easily keep in touch with the birds and rob them of their 

 treasures. At Windsor Harbor we saw six young Great Black- 

 backed Gulls cooped in an ancient wreck, for the purpose of fattening 

 for the pan. Unless some penalty can be imposed one cannot expect 

 a man to pass by a nest full of Eider Duck's eggs, or even leave the fat 

 mother unmolested if he can shoot her. Young or molting ducks 

 are easily caught and make very good eating, and are no doubt a 

 delightful change from the usual course of fish. One of the Moravian 

 brethren at Hopedale spoke to us with great gusto of the delights of an 

 omelette made of Eider's eggs. The Eskimos procure, he said, from 

 two to three hundred eggs of all kinds for them every spring. 



There is no doubt but that the Eskimo dogs destroy a quantity of 

 eggs and young birds yearly. The dogs are not fed in the summer 

 and must forage for themselves. We judged by their tracks and 

 signs that the dogs explored great regions of the coast and some 

 distance back from it. The eggs and young of Eider Ducks or even 

 of Pipits and other ground-nesting birds must have but little chance 

 to escape detection. The manner in which Pipits and Spotted Sand- 

 pipers flew anxiously about when dogs appeared on the scene, seemed 

 to point to the truth of this theory. We saw them fly at the dogs 

 fiercely, almost hitting them in their desire to drive off the intruders. 

 On going ashore from the steamer for a hasty reconnaissance of the 

 bird inhabitants, we soon learned to expect a dearth of ground-nest- 

 ing birds if Eskimo dogs were about. On this account, at least, the 

 substitution of the reindeer for the Eskimo dog would be of great 

 advantage. 



During the migrations, both spring and fall, the "liveyers" take 



