BIRDS. 
117 
Lancaster Sound, to furnish the tables of all our mess- 
es abundantly. 
They were first seen on the 6th, flying in detached 
parties to the southeast, and descending during the 
hours of low sun to the floes. As they became more 
numerous, they would cover the sea in detached patch- 
es, so crowding the margins of the floes and the de- 
tached pieces of ice as to streak the surrounding area 
with black figures. On such occasions, while feed- 
ing on the ciliogrades and entomostraca, they can be 
approached near enough to be knocked down with 
poles and boat-hooks. The whalers even shoot them 
with dried peas. The slaughter of these poor birds 
fell in large share to me ; it was not uncommon to 
kill more than a hundred in a couple of hours. 
