\ • 
m 
of their clamour at night (being silent 
through the day) they are hated by 
sailors, who (imagining they forebode a 
storm,) call them witches. 
Our sailors shot many of these birds# 
but that had not much effect in making 
the others keep a more respectful dis¬ 
tance. 
Many of the inhabitants of these 
Islands feed, during the season, on the 
eggs and young of wild birds. These 
they procure in a very dangerous man¬ 
ner from cliffs, in some places from sixty 
to one hundred fathoms high. The at¬ 
tempt is mostly made from above. The 
dauntless adventurer descends by a rope 
made either of straw or hog’s bristles, 
and held by a person at the top. Often¬ 
times the rope breaks, and the unhappy 
fowler is either dashed to pieces or 
drowned. The necessity of shifting the 
rope from place to place, with the im¬ 
pending weight of the fowler and his 
