IN AUDUBON'S' LABRADOR 



bon to the present day who have visited this 

 coast have bewailed the fact that the eider 

 was singled out for destruction. 



In 1906 Dr. G. M. Allen and I saw only 

 about seventy of these birds on the long stretch 

 of the eastern coast of Labrador between Battle 

 Harbor and Hamilton Inlet. This is a region 

 that is visited by a large number of Newfound- 

 land fishermen in summer, and its coast is 

 dotted with the fishing-hamlets of the resi- 

 dents, or Uveyeres, as they are called. The men 

 know every nook and cranny of the coast, 

 shoot the birds in great numbers in both fall 

 and spring migrations, take their eggs and 

 down whenever they find them, and even shoot 

 the setting females. In visiting their fishing- 

 traps in the height of the breeding-season 

 they often take their guns along with them, 

 so that few birds escape. North of Hamilton 

 Inlet the Northern eider {Somateria molUssima 

 borealis) is persecuted by the Eskimos of the 

 Moravian villages as well as by the fishermen. 



The same condition of affairs exists on the 



southern coast, where eiders are persecuted 



not only by the, white fishermen, but also by 



the Montagnais Indians, who, after disposing 



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