IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



eiders and the eggs of nesting birds is often 

 seized upon by these men as an excuse for de- 

 stroying both old and young of this species, but 

 the majority seek no excuse. 



The recent adoption and increasing use of 

 motor-boats has greatly increased the destruc- 

 tion of birds. Fishermen are enabled to trav- 

 erse much greater areas of the coast, to reach 

 distant islands where birds are nesting, and 

 more readily to approach birds on the water. 

 Going to and from the fishing-ground, the 

 motor-boat enables its owner to take wide dd- 

 tours and gather cargoes of eggs and nesting 

 birds. When sails and oars are used, these out- 

 of-the-way spots are fairly safe. 



The destruction wrought by the Indians dur- 

 ing their summer sojourn on the coast is increas- 

 ing as other sources of food are diminishing. 



If the treatment of the bird-population in 

 Canadian Labrador, where there are laws and 

 game-wardens, is bad, that in Newfoundland 

 Labrador, where there appear to be neither, 

 is still worse. In 1906 I found a bad state of 

 affairs ^ and a rapidly diminishing water-bird 



' See Along the Labrador Coast, chap, xi, "Audubon and the 

 Need of an Audubon Society in Labrador." 



S9Z 



