CONSERVATION IN LABRADOR 



for the purpose of seeing the frightened birds 

 jump from their eggs. As a result the cliffs 

 of Cape Whittle are now nearly deserted by 

 birds. 



I obtained from reliable sources, often from 

 the offenders themselves, who seemed to be 

 entirely unconscious of the enormity of their 

 offenses, numerous reports of great quantities 

 of murres' and eiders' eggs collected for their 

 own consumption by the crews of fishing and 

 trading schooners. Many of these vessels are 

 scantily or poorly provisioned and make up for 

 this by inroads on the birds. Up to a few years 

 ago a dozen barrels of murres' eggs have been 

 collected by a crew of twenty men in less than 

 an hour from one island. As many of the terri- 

 fied nesting birds are clubbed and killed as pos- 

 sible. The manner in which bird-life is squan- 

 dered at such times is almost too terrible to be 

 thought of. 



Besides the eggs and nesting birds, the young 

 of several species of water-birds, particularly of 

 the great black-backed gull, are eagerly sought 

 for the table. Sometimes the young are con- 

 fined in coops and fattened before killing. The 

 fact that this gull sometimes destroys young 

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