But if the gull gets an egg, he flies up with it, and, tossing it up, swallows what he can catch, letting the shell and half its contents fall in a shower upon the luckless and disappointed egger below.
[Illustration: SHAGS, MURRES, AND SEA-GULLS.] Finally, so difficult is the ground that it is impossible to carry baskets.

The egger therefore stuffs the eggs into his shirt bosom until he has as many as he can safely carry, then clambers over rocks and down precipices until he comes to a place of deposit, where he puts them into baskets, to be carried down to the shore, where there are houses for receiving them.

But so skillful and careful are the gatherers that but few eggs are broken.
The gathering proceeds daily, when it has once begun, and the whole ground is carefully cleared off, so that no stale eggs shall remain.

Thus if a portion of the ground has been neglected for a day or two, all the eggs must be flung into the sea, so as to begin afresh.

As the season advances, the operations are somewhat contracted, leaving a part of the island undisturbed for breeding; and the gathering of eggs is stopped entirely about a month before the birds usually leave the island, so as to give them all an opportunity to hatch out a brood.
[Illustration: CONTEST FOR THE EGGS.] The murre is not good to eat.