50 THE GANNET 



In 1902 I had no report from the hghthouse, but m 1903 I 

 learnt from Professor Newton, who was in communication 

 with Mr. H. B. Elton, that the latter had found five pairs 

 of Gannets nesting in a cove below the lighthouse, and that, 

 in spite of its precipitous nature, he had been shown their 

 five eggs which had been all taken ! In 1904, according 

 to the lighthouse keeper, no eggs were laid by the worn-out 

 and disturbed birds, in spite of the quiet now ensured by 

 a watcher put on by the Society for the Protection of Birds, 

 at the instigation of Professor Newton.* Nor were there 

 any eggs, Mr. Elton tells me, in 1906 or in 1907, although 

 the Gannets returned as usual, and so ends for the 

 present the story of this settlement. 



Lundy, as already stated, is the oldest known Gannet 

 station in the world, once honourably protected, but 

 it has evidently since 1883 been one of the most persecuted. 

 Devonshire naturalists think that in consequence most of 

 the Gannets have gone to Grasholm, on the Welsh coast, 

 but there also they have not been free from persecution. 

 That some would come back to Lundy if the place were 

 sufficiently protected can hardly be doubted, for a site 

 occupied by birds so attached to their homes as Gannets 

 for nearly 700 years is not easily forsaken. It is earnestly 



* See the Society's " Bird Notes and News," October, 1904, and their 

 " Report," 1905, p. 7. 



