296 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



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 



"With a bark nearly half filled with fresh eggs they proceed to the 

 principal rock, that on which they first landed. But what is their 

 surprise when they find others there helping themselves as industri- 

 ously as they can! In boiling rage they charge their guns, and ply 

 their oars. Landing on the rock, they run up to the Eggers, who, 

 like themselves, are desperadoes. The first question is a discharge 

 of musketry, the answer another 



"The Eggers of Labrador not only rob the birds in this cruel man- 

 ner, but also the fishermen, whenever they can find an opportunity; 



and the quarrels they excite are numberless These people gather 



all the eider down they can find; yet so inconsiderate are they, that 

 they kill every bird that comes in their way. The eggs of Gulls, 

 Guillemots, and Ducks are searched for with care; and the Puffins 

 and some other birds they massacre in vast numbers for the sake of 

 their feathers. So constant and persevering are their depredations 

 that these species, which, according to the accounts of the few settlers 

 I saw in the country, were exceedingly abundant twenty years ago, 

 have abandoned their ancient breeding places, and removed much 

 farther north in search of peaceful security. Scarcely, in fact, could 

 I procure a young Guillemot before the Eggers had left the coast, nor 

 was it until late in July that I succeeded, after the birds had laid 

 three or four eggs each, instead of one, and when nature having been 

 exhausted, and the season nearly spent, thousands of these birds 

 left the country without having accomplished the purpose for which 

 they had visited it. This war of extermination cannot last many 

 years more. The Eggers themselves will be the first to repent the 

 entire disappearance of the myriads of birds that made the coast of 

 Labrador their summer residence, and unless they follow the perse- 

 cuted tribes to the northward, they must renounce their trade." 



Dr. H. R. Storer entered in his journal on July 23, 1849, the follow- 

 ing interesting note: "In the afternoon I started in the Englishman's 

 whaleboat with part of his crew for the Egg Islands [near American 

 Harbor] .... It was very rough and we had some difficulty in land- 

 ing. When we did, however, I was amazed at the immense number 

 of birds here breeding — we found in places the eggs so thickly 



