IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



habit was to run her bow on to a smooth rock 

 at the top of a wave, and, after all had jumped 

 out, to pull her up before the next wave struck. 

 To our delight most of the birds remained at 

 their posts even after we had landed in this 

 rude and boisterous manner, and the botanist 

 and I carefully stalked them with our cameras 

 leveled. Soon we found ourselves among the 

 cormorants' nests with murres on all sides. 

 Although most of the adult cormorants had 

 silently left, their kind was well represented 

 by the young, who, crying vociferously for 

 food, stretched their necks at us from the 

 nests. . They were extraordinary creatures, 

 generally three, sometimes four, or only two 

 in a nest. When small they were entirely desti- 

 tute of down or feathers and of the color and 

 appearance of an india-rubber doll. The large 

 ones, from a foot to two feet long, were cov- 

 ered with a black woolly down suggestive of 

 a toy black lamb. They were, indeed, weird 

 objects as they thrust out their long snakelike 

 necks and small heads. Their naked throat- 

 sacs, of a pale yellow color tinged with pink, 

 distended and quivered as they constantly 

 called in hoarse, beseeching tones for food. I 

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