m AUDUBON'S LABEADOE 



if conservation is not practiced, he will event- 

 ually exterminate the creatures bf his quest. 

 This was true in the case of the buffalo, the 

 great auk, and the passenger pigeon, and the 

 same fate awaits many other beasts and birds. 

 In Audubon's day the despoilers of Labrador 

 bird-rookeries plied their trade without let or 

 hindrance. Audubon was filled with sorrow on 

 observing their cruel methods and their ruth- 

 less destruction of his beloved bird-life. He 

 writes: — 



"See yon shallop, shyly sailing along; she 

 sneaks like a thief wishing, as it were, to shun 

 the very light of heaven. Under the lee of 

 every rocky isle some one at the tiller steers 

 her course. . . . 



"There rides the filthy thing! The after- 

 noon is half over. Her crew have thrown their 

 boat overboard, they enter and seat themselves, 

 each with a rusty gun. One of them sculls the 

 skiff towards an island for a century past a 

 breeding-place of myriads of Guillemots, which 

 are now to be laid under contribution. At the 

 approach of the vile thieves, clouds of birds 

 rise from the rock and fill the air around, wheel- 

 ing and screaming over their enemies. Yet 



S84 



