IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



sack twenty miles of coast-line in a single day 

 and find, probably, nearly every eider nest. 

 The result of this systematic persecution can- 

 not be doubtful or long delayed." 



M. Abbott Frazar, who was in southern 

 Labrador in 1884, said of this bird: "They 

 are persecuted with relentless energy by both 

 man and beast from the time they arrive up to 

 the time they leave, and the countless hoards 

 that once inhabited this coast are fast disap- 

 pearing, and it will not be long before the 

 Eider of Southern Labrador, like the Eider of 

 Grand Manan will be but a memory of the 

 past." 



It is natural that the fishermen and Indians 

 should act thus, for eider eggs are delicious 

 eating and the flesh of the birds, at least of 

 the female and young, is equally palatable. 

 Both are generous in the amount of nourish- 

 ment furnished. But these people are killing 

 the goose that lays the golden egg, and the 

 time is not far distant, where such methods 

 prevail, before the eider will be no more. 



There is no reason why the eider, which 

 furnishes the valuable eider-down of com- 

 merce, should not be made a source of consid- 



304 



