COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 
5 
who make the occasion a great holiday. They encamp for several 
days on the island and shoot down the poor birds as they fly in a 
bewildered manner around and around their homes. I was told by 
one man with great glee that he sometimes shot two hundred birds 
in a day. He added that the wounded birds were generally lost, as 
they crawled into their nesting holes. I, myself, in 1909, witnessed, 
on ahother island, where puffins bred, this cruel sport. The birds, 
bewildered and frightened by the shooting, circled about the island 
and were picked off by the gunner as they flew past. At Perroquet 
island the boys who have no guns strike down the birds with long 
poles. The whole village feasts on the puffins and many are wasted 
or given to the dogs. Throughout the summer the island is visited 
by fishermen, who not only shoot the birds, but also dig them out 
of their nesting holes and secure them in nets spread over the holes. 
In many cases the young are left to perish. The Newfoundland 
fishermen are undoubtedly the worst offenders in egg and bird 
destruction, but the people of the coast are not far behind. The 
former are absolutely ruthless of consequences for the birds, but 
the people of the coast in some few cases are careful not to disturb 
the birds after the first eggs have been appropriated. The case of 
the island near Point au Maurier, where ring-billed gulls breed, is 
an example. Here for many years the sole family living at this 
place had been in the habit of looking to the island for a supply of 
fresh eggs, but they never disturb the birds after they have taken 
the first set of eggs. The bird colony has in consequence suffered 
no diminution, and has even increased in numbers. 
The shooting of female eider ducks as they leave their nests 
involves, of course, the loss of the brood. The eggs themselves may 
be discarded on account of the advanced stage of incubation. The 
fishermen take the eggs to a pool of water and save only those that 
sink. The ones that float contain partly or wholly formed young 
and are thrown away. If the men intend to stay near the breeding 
place for a few days they destroy all the eggs, so that a fresh lot 
may be laid for them to appropriate. 
Nesting murres are shot or killed with clubs. Most of these 
birds are eaten, but nesting gulls, terns and cormorants are often 
shot for the cruel pleasure and practice of the sport, and left where 
they fall. It is almost inconceivable that men should destroy such 
exquisite creatures as terns and gulls without even intending to 
pick them up and look at them, but it is a sad commentary on 
humanity that such “sport”—God save the mark—is not infre¬ 
quently indulged in by men of education and supposed refinement. 
I have known men of this class to hold up their hands in horror at 
an ornithologist who had shot a small bird for the distinct object 
of study and of addition to human knowledge. Another cruel sport, 
that is frequently practised by thoughtless people, is the firing of 
guns near rookeries for the purpose of seeing the frightened birds 
jump from their eggs. As a result of these practices the cliffs of 
cape Whittle are now nearly deserted by birds. 
I obtained from reliable sources, often from the offenders them¬ 
selves, numerous reports of great quantities of murre and eider eggs 
