336 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



an Arniin were similarly visited by the men for the sake 

 of the Ganiiet feathers. The feathers, indeed, were at 

 that time their chief source of livelihood. Having, how- 

 ever, now other means of support, and the time of the 

 men being now more taken up with fishing, it no longer 

 pays them to go through the hardships which the collec- 

 tion of the feathers entailed, especially as the price is now 

 very low, and the slaughter of birds for this purpose only 

 has now been discontinued. Considerable quantities of 

 feathers, mostly those of the Fulmar, are however still 

 exported, but these must be regarded rather in the light 

 of a by-product of the Fulmar harvest, as these birds are 

 killed more particularly for food and for the sake of the 

 oil. Boiled Fulmar is looked upon as a delicacy by the 

 natives, but though I sampled one, I cannot say that I 

 was much enamoured of it, as to me it had rather a 

 sickly, insipid taste : it was better roasted. Puffin, I 

 found much more palatable : in fact, roasted as the natives 

 do it, the bird has a distinct gamey flavour, and is by no 

 means bad. Considerable quantities of these birds are 

 consumed as food by the natives, but they are not eaten 

 to nearly the same extent as formerly. The method of 

 cooking them is, after plucking, to split them down the 

 back from one end to the other, when, after cleaning, they 

 are opened out flat, and being placed in an upright position 

 on the floor of the hearth, are roasted in that way before 

 the peat fire. When they come to table they have some- 

 thing of Hie appearance and flavour of kippered herrings. 

 Guillemots and Gannets are also captured for food when 

 they arrive in the spring, but the great raids on the young 

 Gannets in the autumn for the sake of the feathers and 

 oil have been discontinued during the past few years. 



Concurrently, however, with a diminution in the 

 number of birds killed for the sake of the feathers, a 



