IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOB 



It is an old custom, and the wastefulness and 

 terrible cruelty of it all does not appear to pene- 

 trate to those men's consciences. The people 

 who live along the coast and the fishermen who 

 come from a distance have always been in the 

 habit of taking eggs and killing the birds for 

 food. They regard it as their right, and, al- 

 though some of them will admit that the waste- 

 ful methods used are fast destroying the birds, 

 they are not willing to refrain from these meth- 

 ods. They say, with reason, that if they do not 

 take these eggs or young gulls or shoot these 

 nesting ducks some one else will. It is each man 

 for himself and the devil take the hindermost. 

 After us the deluge. Annihilation is the fate of 

 the birds: the eider and the murre will go the 

 way of the Labrador duck and the great auk. 

 Birds that nest in crevices in the rocks, like 

 black guillemots and rsizor-billed auks, will last 

 longer, but the end is in sight for all. 



It is a truism that laws out of sympathy with 

 the feelings of people will not be kept. Laws 

 against egging or shooting out of season can- 

 not be enforced on the long and intricate coast 

 of Labrador. Wardens who intend to do their 

 duty and arrest and prosecute offenders will 



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