ST. ivlLDA AND ITS BIRDS. B7B 



the weather is fine they may stay six days on the rocks, 

 that is, in the morning only. As the spring draws on 

 they spend a longer time on the rocks. They act in this 

 way throughout March and April. In March it will be 

 daylight before they come to the rocks, but in April they 

 come in the early morning before it is quite light. In 

 the latter month they are caught by the natives in an 

 ingenious manner. This method, which is of ancient 

 date, is recorded by the older writers, sometimes with 

 pretty fanciful additions, but it is interesting to learn that 

 it is still practised, and to have an account of it from the 

 lips of a native who had himself taken part in it. The 

 men leave their houses at midnight, taking lanterns with 

 them, and station themselves on the rocky ledges which 

 the Guillemots frequent, with a rope tied round their 

 waists and fastened to a stone above as a precaution in 

 case they fall asleep (a contingency which actually at 

 times occurs) and wait there till the morning. The 

 fowler wraps himself up in a white sheet and puts a white 

 cap on his head so as to make himself assimilate as much 

 as possible to the rock, white with the droppings of the 

 bird, on which he is fixed. When dawn is just breaking 

 the birds come in from the sea, and settle on the fowler, 

 mistaking him for a portion of rock. The first bird 

 caught is killed by breaking its neck, and then the fowler 

 puts the bill of the bird in his mouth, keeping the white 

 breast out, so as to add to the deception ; sometimes the 

 man will tie a string round his waist and hang two or 

 three birds to it with their breasts out, in similar fashion. 

 The fun is fast and furious whilst it lasts, as the birds 

 often come in so rapidly that the fowler cannot kill them 

 quickly enough. The birds keep coming on in this way 

 for about half an hour, but as soon as it gets light enough 

 to distinguish the man from the rock, the arriving birds 



