26 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



1849, Mr. J. L. Hurdis visited Gurnet Eock or 'Gurnet Head Eock/ a 

 small, precipitous, and nearly inaccessible outlying island, situated off 

 Castle Harbor, and found there the nests of a shearwater in the crevices 

 of the rocks. He concluded that he had found and identified the long- 

 lost cahow. 



His identification has been accepted by Capt. S. G. Eeid and 

 other later writers on the ornithology of the Bermudas, apparently 

 without any adequate consideration of the facts stated by the early 

 writers from personal observation. It has been assumed by nearly all 

 recent writers, though without any real evidence, that Gurnet (Head) 



Ancient ruined kokt a un Gurnet's Head of Castle Island; 6, watki: ii^^ii.iiN, stii.j, 



HOLDING water ; C, CATCHMENT SLOPE, BUILT OF SLABS OF LIMESTONE ; 



d, Gurnet Head Rock; e, entrance to Castle Harbor. 



Eock was the particular place, or at least one of the places, where the 

 cahow bred In old times. Perhaps this may be due to the name, but 

 it was called 'Gurnet Head Eock,' because it lies off 'Gurnet Head' on 

 Castle Island. The latter name was in use in 1619. Some of the early 

 writers say that it bred on some of the smaller iminhabited islands, 

 inaccessible to the wild hogs, without designating any particular one 

 (see Strachy's narrative). Governor Butler and the Eev. Lewis Hughes 

 say that a boat could go to its breeding places and get a load of the 

 bird and its eggs in a short time (see Strachy's account, above). This 

 was apparently done only in the night. Therefore the islands visited 



