Bird - Lore 



A SMALL CORNER OF THE GANNET COLONY IN THE BONAVENTURE ISLAND 

 BIRD SANCTUARY, QUEBEC 

 The young birds shown here are assuming the dark juvenal plumage. Photographed by Wm. Duval 



nest in this bird community are the Gannets. There are now but two places 

 in North America where Gannets nest. The smaller of these two Gannet 

 colonies, on the Bird Rocks, is comparatively difficult to visit. The larger 

 colony, containing about 8,000 breeding birds, is on the seaward side of Bona- 

 venture Island. The following graphic account of the appearance of this 

 colony is from the pen of Mr. P. A. Taverner*: 



"Approaching this side from the sea, one is aware that every ledge and 

 shelf is covered with white as though snow had piled in drifts upon them al- 

 lowing only the overhangs to show dull red between the glistening surfaces. 

 A wind seems to stir the white masses, and they blow off in eddies and clouds 

 of drifting flakes that finally resolve themselves into great white birds that 

 swirl about the cliff faces and circle round the intruder amid a pandemonium 

 of hoarse cries. These are the Gannets, the Solan Geese of older authors, each 

 as large as a goose, pure white with black wing-tips and a slight creamy wash 

 on crown and hind neck. The air is filled with their waving wings. They fill 

 it like a swarm of giant midges circling in the sun." 



One of the boatmen at Perce told me that he thought that persons visiting 

 the Gannet cliffs for the first time should be tied to the thwarts on which 

 they sat, for they commonly became so excited when they beheld the throngs 

 of birds at close range that they were in danger of leaping overboard. He 

 added that, often as he had seen the Gannets on their nests, he could never 

 behold the scene without a thrill of emotion. There are good opportunities 

 at Bonaventure Island to photograph the Gannets and to make intimate 

 studies of their home-life. 



*"The Gannets of Bonaventure Island," The Ottawa Naturalist, Vol. XXXII, No. 2, p. ai. 



