C4RASH0LM ISLAND 55 



week for a fine day, but the calmest weather is necessary 

 for a successful visit. The chief company of Gannets nidify 

 on the north side of Grasholm island, where in one place 

 the cliff, which is not very high, terminates in a convenient 

 table-like top, occupied by at least one hundred Gannets : 

 further on we observed five smaller companies, averaging 

 forty Gannets each, as w^ell as three or four smaller parties 



We.'it. Tiunp 



■B A. 



GRASHOLM. 



of eight or ten. As far as we could see, every Gannet on the 

 island was in adult plumage, but seven or eight piebald ones 

 were flying around, being in much the same proportion as at 

 Ailsa, and the Bass Rock, viz., about one piebald bird to fifty 

 adults. Judging from one of my tame ones, which went 

 through a succession of changes to be described later on, 

 these piebald Gannets must be from twelve to twenty-six 

 months old, according to the amount of white on them, but 



