BRITISH BIRDS. 
till the approaching of the fpring, when they agaiii 
retire northward to the ar£tk regions to breed. A 
few, indeed, drop fliort, and perform that office by 
the way, for they are known to breed iii fome of 
the Hebrides, the Orkney, Shetland, and other 
folitary ifles; but thefe are hardly worth notice: 
the great bodies of them are met with in the large 
rivers and lakes near Hudfon’s Bay, and thofe of 
Eamtfchatka, Lapland, and Iceland. They are faid 
to return to the latter place in flocks of about a 
hundred at a time in the fpring, and alfo to pour in 
upon that ifland from the north, in nearly the fame 
manner, on their way fouthward in the autumn. 
The young which are bred there remain through- 
out the firfl: year ; and in Auguft, when they are 
in moult, and unable to fly, the natives taking ad- 
vantage of this, flioot, kill them with clubs, and 
hunt them down with dogs, by which they are 
eafily caught. The flefli is highly efteemed by 
them as a delicious food, as are alfo the eggs, which 
are gathered in the fpring. The Icelanders, Kamt-' 
fchatdales, and other natives of the northern world, 
drefs their Ikins with the down on, few them to- 
gether, and make them , into garments of various 
kinds : the northern American Indians do the fame, 
and fometimes weave the down as barbers weave 
the cawls for wigs, and then manufadlure it into' 
ornamental drefles for the women of rank, while 
the larger feathers are formed into caps and plumes ' 
VoL. II. t Mm 
