24 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[May 



an occasional breeze wafts a whiff of acrid guano 

 odour from below. Going out on a small pro- 

 jectmg pomt, a spot is found where a long hne of 

 cliff face can be enfilated and a wonderful sight 

 greets the eye. Looking down on the upper sur- 

 faces, tiers of irregular white shelving are seen, 

 peopled with hundreds of birds, the din of raucous 

 voices increase and hundreds of great white gannets 

 launch out into the air. They circle out over the 

 sea and return to leeward, sailing by and passing 

 the cliff edge at almost arm's length against the 

 wind. They pause as they reach a strong salient 

 point of the cliff beyond and meet the full strength 

 of the breeze, pause a moment, and then fall off sea- 

 wards to circle a quarter of a mile out and return 

 and repeat indefinitely. As each bird passes it 

 turns its ivory bill and blue circled silvery eyes full 

 upon the intruder, follows him with calm impersonal 

 stare until well past and then straightens away on 

 its course to be replaced in a moment by the next 

 one that repeats the motions to a nicety. Bird 

 follows bird so fast that they cannot be counted. 

 Each the exact duplicate of the last until one is 

 finally almost forced to turn the eyes away from the 

 confusing repetition to prevent dizziness in a situa- 

 tion where dizziness may be fatal. 



There is nearly half a mile of these cliffs peopled 

 by Gannets, ending at the far point in Great Gannet 

 Ledge where the most spectacular view is obtained. 

 Every here and there are small salients where one 

 can closely approach the edge and, reclining on the 

 grassy margin, view the scene at ease. After a few 

 minutes the birds begin to return to their stations 

 and with them one sees Murres, Puffins and Razor- 

 billed Auks hurrying to and from their nesting 

 crevices throughout the height of the cliff. The 

 Puffins with their quick bee-like buzz of wings, and 

 the Murres and Auks with rather slower wing-beat 

 fly with the business-like directness of aerial tor- 

 pedoes. The Gannets crowd the ledges until it 

 seems that there is no room for more, but still they 

 come. Occasionally one skirts a shelf a consider- 

 able distance before finding unoccupied foothold 

 then it forces its way between adjoining birds some- 

 times knocking several off with its broad wings as 

 it alights. One holds his breath almost expecting 

 to see these so unceremoniously treated dashed on 

 the rocks three hundred feet below, but no, before 

 descent begins the ample wings open and the victim 

 glides off in safety, calling back protesting grunts 

 as it joins the circling flock. The new arrival looks 

 around, eyes its nest further back on the ledge and 

 measures the crowd between, then with an awkward 

 waddle, makes straight for its objective amid a 

 shower of blows of bill and wing from disturbed 



neighbours en route. Arriving at its own nest site it 

 exchanges challenges with all surrounding it. At 

 first threatening these interchanges become more 

 formal and end at last with a sort of convention- 

 alized ritual in which the head of opposing birds is 

 thrown straight up in the air and the bill opened and 

 closed, then the head is held at right angles to the 

 neck and pumped up and down several times as if 

 bowing. This is repeated several times, becoming 

 more and more prefunctionary until it dies away. 

 But even after all are at rest this series of con- 

 ventional courtesies is exchanged occasionally be- 

 tween sitting birds. When a bird desires to leave 

 the nest formality is dispensed with. Though it 

 may be well at the back of the ledge and separated 

 from the verge by numbers of other birds it suddenly 

 makes straight for the edge, wabbling, flopping and 

 and sliding irrespective of who or what is in the 

 way. By a sudden dash it takes all by surprise and 

 almost before a bill can be brought against it or a 

 blow driven home it is over the edge and away 

 leaving a wake of upset and protesting birds who 

 momentarily turn their weapons against each other 

 and then philosophically resume their places and 

 comparative quiet reigns again. 



A steady head can reach some of the occupied 

 ledges nearer the top unaided, but a rope and stout 

 helping hand at the top are of great assistance and 

 insure confidence. There one can scramble about 

 amongst the sitting birds. They are not very wild 

 on the less accessible ledges and when they have 

 young can even be caught in the hand, but their 

 bills are powerful, finely saw-edged and can make 

 a nasty wound, and it is better to take the obvious 

 fact for granted than to demonstrate it. The young 

 when first hatched are shapeless, moist, gray, slug-like 

 creatures that can barely raise their heads unsteadily 

 from the ground and then let them fall again with 

 helpless weakness. Later a white down comes out 

 over all the body except the face, which has a black 

 shivelled appearance, like that of an old, old negro 

 with features surrounded with white wool. They 

 are extremely quaint as they stand or sit up with 

 the gravity of judges. The adult as mentioned 

 before is pure white with black wing tips and a 

 golden creamy wash over crown and nape. The 

 bird of the year when able to shift for itself is 

 smoky brown covered over all with fine white V- 

 shaped spots. In between this latter plumage and 

 the adult is every intermediate stage of pied spotting. 

 Contrary to what would naturaly be expected such 

 birds are comparatively scarce in the neighbour- 

 hood of the rookery perhaps averaging in the total 

 population less than one in fifty. The only ex- 

 planation that can at present be advanced is 



