70 THE GANNET 



fall into space, and I was told at Portmagee that to clamber 

 up to their nests required a good deal of care, if the climber 

 wished to avoid a blow from a descending Gannet, which 

 might easily be very serious. 



According to the lighthouse-keeper the date of the first 

 Gannet seen on the Little Skellig in four years was found to 

 vary from February 6th to February 28th, and that of the 

 last Gannet seen on the same rock between September 26th 

 and November 7th.* On the Greater SkeUig there are 

 many birds, including Storm-Petrels, but Gannets are not 

 known to have ever bred there. 



The Bull Rock. 



Its Modern History. — Seventeen miles southward of 

 the Skelligs there is another Gannetry, on the coast 

 of Cork — Bull Rock — the history of which is, like 

 that of Grasholm, somewhat obscure. Mr. S. N. 

 Hutchins, of Bantry, visited this rock in 1868,t but 

 I learn from Mr. Hutchins that this settlement 

 was in existence before that, for about 1858 Dean 

 Hallahan and Mr. Henry Puxley were there, and found 



* " Migration of Birds," by R. M. Barrington, p. 252. This book contains 

 a great many dates of Gannets' movements taken at different seasons 

 by the lighthouse-keepers for Mr. Barrington. 



t "Zoologist," 1882, p. 110. 



