The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1919-12-09
BIRD ROCKS IN FAR NORTH
ONE OF NATURES MARVELS

on some iceberg making its Southern
march from Baffin's Bay in the spring.
On the west coast of Newfoundland
stands an island, with perpendicular
rocky sides, rising nearly 400 feet
out of the sea. 1t is about three
acres in area at the top. 1t seems to
have been cleft from the mainland
and is safely beyond reach of duck
shot.
Late in April the guillemots gather
in the sea around this island in hun
dreds of thousands; and some fine
morning, when the snow has disap-
peared from the top, they rise in a
compact body, flying first fully a
thousand feet in the air, then lower
ing and circling for half an hour
around and around the top of the is
land, darkening the ground with the
shadow of their wings, then settling
on the top and turning the white,
lime stained surface shining black.
Once settled, they will not leave the
island in a body till the last of June,
unless a snowstorm comes. Then they
take to the sea again until the snow
has melted from their nesting place.
Among the guillemots are scatter
ed hundreds of razor bills, prettily
shaped little birds that have plumage
like their neighbors but are provided
with a deep and beautifully marked
bill.
1t is very interesting to watch the
mother bird take the young one from
the top of the high cliff down to the
sea. The mother entices the tiny bird,
mot larger than an English sparrow
and covered with black and white,
down to the edge of the cliff. Then
she lowers herself to the cliffs edge,
balancing with her wing till the little
one, guided by it's instinct, crawls
carefully upon the mothers back,
crouching firmly between her wings.
Then the mother, with a very
steady and gentle motion of her pin
ions, lowers herself down and OUT
ward into the sea, clear of rocks and
surf.
Vast armies of cormorants, called
by northern fishermen "shags''-
large, black birds with long wings,
legs and necks and slow fiight-also
invade the bird rocks, making them a
coal black from the first of May till
the first of July.
These are cruel monsters, attack
| ing and driving out guillemots, gulls,
razor bills or any other birds that
may take up their abode on any rock
or island to which they take a fancy
Sometimes they grow tired of one
of their nesting places and scour the
coasts for new abodes. There is an
island off the coast of Labrador
which some years ago was visited ev-
cry season by myriads of guillemots.
The cormorants saw the place, took
! a liking to it, and one spring sur
rounded it, about 10000 strong, a
few days after the guillemots had
taken possession.
In it's day the great aux was more
numerous even than the cormorant.
Off the coast of Newfoundland lies
group of islands called the Funks.
Here in the beginning of the last CEN
tury the gairfowl, with its short,
abortive wings, resorted in hundreds
and hundreds of thousands to breed.
It's feather were soft and fine. Be-
meath the feathers was a thick coat
ing of valuable down, and its flesh,
| dl ISI IHG DIIu lldO USSIl oOdhSus was
extremely palatable.
The great aux could not fly. Its
little wings resembled fins. But it
swan hundreds Of miles out of the
bays in spring and back again in the
autumn to and from the Matching
places. 1t was helpless on land and
prey to any enemy larger than itself.
Some naturalists used to claim that
the aux came as far south as the coast
of Maine, but in the opinion of most
authorities the bird went no further
than Newfoundland. 1t is just pos
sible that the bones discovered by
onithologists farther south may have
been conveyed there in the guano
when it was an article of commerce.