EGG GATHERING.
ARCTIC BIRDS.
But the scene of greatest life, in the arctic regions, is to be found among the birds. On the rocky cliffs, that stand out in the Polar sea in the short northern summer, they are to be found in such quantities as to literally darken the sky. Auks, and gulls, and ducks, cover the rocks. The most daring arctic explorer has never penetrated to lands where he has not found the eider duck. Well may this bird dare to make journeys into tracts where none can follow. With its warm coat it can bid defiance to the cold, and on its swift wing it can fly over fifty miles an hour, and should danger arise, can soon be beyond its reach. The hardy natives of Iceland gather each year large quantities of their feathers, which have a high value. Reaching their nests they take from them the delicate feathers, which the female bird has pulled from her breast to make a soft covering for the expected young. No sooner does she find her nest bare, than she again pulls a fresh supply, which is again taken from her. A third time she lines anew her nest, and now she is left in peace, for if again disturbed, the bird deserts entirely her accustomed breeding place, and seeks a new region beyond the reach of man.
BIRD CATCHING.
Coasts, such as those of Norway, where the rocky cliffs rising hundreds of feet above the sea stretch for mile after mile, are especially fancied by sea birds. Every ledge is crowded with their nests, while the air is dark with them. But no cliff can protect them against their great enemy, man. No cliff is too inaccessible for him to reach.