Part 27 (1/2)
”So they fought till they tired of it, and then they pulled out the ruetfulness of their fierce battle
”With the nexts they actually needed for their hungry wives and little ones at ho salt meat for e of diet
”But the pirate eggers were bound they shouldn't have it The fisher for trouble: they were taken by surprise when the eggers rushed down on theers, who had not slept off the effects of the carousal of the night before, shot one of the fisherers about ten to one, gave the latter the beating of their lives Fortunately, the fisherman who had been shot was not killed
”That was the sort of thing that happened again and again in the bad old days
”No wonder Audubon, as a great lover of birds, was very angry at theseit is and raise their families on the Labrador They could have had all they wanted to eat without exterht to anybody who ht come after theht 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 tis which they sold for twenty-five cents a dozen Near Cape Whittle he found two s 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 sull, known as the 'ice partridge,' is so seal's blood on the ice The birds swoop down to get it, and are shot So 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 fa-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 kno the Chinese use cors about their necks to keep the the birds classed as garouse are so easy to kill that a true sports after theht 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 fro bird doesn't disturb the others
”Cartwright, an early explorer, tells how he carouse and knocked off all their heads with his rifle
”In winter, thegrouse bury themselves in the snow, and the 'cock of the roost' is sentinel, keeping his head above the snoatch for an ene about the lakes and ponds, is a grass-eater, and so tastes better than the fishy, oily gulls and divers You can taoose and use it as a decoy When a nuht away are hung outside the house There they freeze, and are kept fresh all winter long
”There couldn't be a better retriever for a duck-hunt than the Eski I've watched them dash into the waves after a bird, only to be thrown back, bruised and winded, high up on the ledges of the rock
”Then the return ould drag thes would hang on for dear life, till their nails were torn away and their paere bleeding
”Even that wouldn'tfor their chance they would juet clear of the surf
”When they've once got hold of a duck, nothing will o
I've often been teive the brave fellows a hand, when it seeer
”They'd sink out of sight in a bigger wave than usual--and then, sure enough, you'd see the duck again, and the dog's head after it, still true to duty even in the jaws of death For so is drowned”
XIV