Every part of the island swarmed with rabbits, in fact, it was a perfect warren, and must have contained thousands of them.  I had therefore to devise some means of keeping them down, or they would so have multiplied as to eat up everything that to a rodent was toothsome, and that is nearly everything green, even to the furze bushes.  I had only four tooth-traps with me, and these were not nearly adequate for the number I wanted to kill, so I had recourse to wire gins.  These I soon became an adept in setting, and discovered that by placing the thin wire noose close to the ground I could catch the wee rabbits, while by keeping the lower part of the noose about four inches above the turf I could secure the large ones.  By practice and observation I soon learned not only the best “runs,” but could tell just where they would place their feet, as they bounded up or down the steep acclivities.

At times I had seventy or eighty gins set, and caught perhaps a hundred a week in the season, which I regret to say were nearly all thrown into the sea.  This destruction of good food I was very sorry to cause, as it would have fed a dozen poor families; but it was a case of kill the rabbits, or starve my own animals.  I chose the latter alternative, and thus had plump animals and plump rabbits too.  Those I retained formed food for myself, dog, pigs, and a gull I kept.

The gull I must say a little about, as he became a constant companion to me when I was within the wall which surrounded the homestead.  “Flap,” for so I christened him, was a large grey and white gull which I secured soon after coming to the island, by breaking his wing at a long shot.  He tried, poor fellow, to scramble down to the sea, and swim away, but “Begum” was too quick for him, and pounced upon him before he could get over the rocks.  I examined the bird and found the wing bone to be broken, but otherwise the bird was not at all hurt.  It then came into my mind to perform a surgical operation, and this I quickly carried out.  I trimmed away all the feathers from about the wound, and then with one draw of my sharp knife cut through the flesh between the smashed bone, and quickly amputated the wing.

“Flap” was so fierce, and had such a formidable bill, that I had to fasten him to a post to do all this, or he might have given me a deep wound.  I then bathed the stump of the wing with warm water, and bound it up in a lump of lard, and the operation was complete.

I placed him in the stable and fed him with bits of fish, rabbit, and vegetable for about a week, by which time he was fairly tame; so then I took him out and fastened a leather strap round his leg, and tethered him on the grass plot in front of my house, as one would a cow, feeding him several times daily on animal food or fish.  After a week of this he was so tame that he would try to get away from his peg to meet me in the morning.  Seeing this, I decided to release him from his stake.  I did so, and the poor bird followed me about like a dog; in fact, I believe “Begum” was jealous of him, for when I petted the gull he would come and thrust his great black nose into my hand, and look up to my eyes, as much as to say,