irds to make their homes and
lay their eggs and raise their families on the Labrador. They could
have had all they wanted to eat without exterminating the birds, and
never giving a thought to anybody who might come after them.

"The fishermen still, in many places, out of sight and reach of any
law, take all the eggs and kill all the birds they can.

"But it's not so bad as it was in Audubon's time, when men from
Halifax took about 40,000 eggs which they sold for twenty-five cents a
dozen. Near Cape Whittle he found two men gathering murre's eggs. They
were proud of the fact that they had collected 800 dozen and they
didn't intend to stop till they had taken 2,000 dozen. The broken eggs
made such a dreadful smell that it almost made him sick.

"The ivory gull, known as the 'ice partridge,' is sometimes caught by
pouring seal's blood on the ice. The birds swoop down to get it, and
are shot. Some actually kill themselves by striking the ice too hard
when they land, for they are so eager to get the blood.

"Labrador is a good place to study the diving birds, which are of two
kinds.

"There are those that use their feet alone under the water--and then
there are those that use only their wings.

"The feet-users clap their wings close to their sides when they dive.

"The wing-users spread out their pinions before they strike the water.
The puffin uses its wings under the water, and so do the other members
of the auk family.

"In the duck family, there are both wing-swimmers and foot-swimmers.
The ducks of the sorts known as old squaws, scoters and eiders fly
under water. But the redheads and canvas-back ducks use only their
feet under water. Mergansers dive with their wings against their
sides, like a folded umbrella. The cormorants are famous swimmers, and
use their feet alone. You know how the Chinese use cormorants as
fish-catchers, putting rings about their necks to keep them from
swallowing their prey.

"Among the birds classed as game-birds, the willow grouse are so easy
to kill that a true sportsman doesn't take much pleasure in going
after them.

"They are often caught with nooses on the end of a stick, while they
roost in the trees, and a group in this position may be killed all at
once, if shot from the bottom, so that the falling bird doesn't
disturb the others.

"Cartwright, an early explorer, tells how he came upon a covey of six
grouse and knocked off all their heads with his rifle.

"In winter,