BULL ROCK 73 



growth. One nest contained a half -digested fish about the 

 size of a mackerel. The harsh croaking cry of the Gannets 

 was very striking. They are courageous birds : numbers 

 of them sat while blasting took place close by, the splinters 

 falling in showers around them. . . ." 



In 1891 the strength of the Bull population was reduced to 

 220,* which was attributed by some to the blasting operations 

 mentioned by Mr. Usslier, but it may have been equally 

 due to depredations by the workmen. The fluctuations in 

 this Gannetry are curious, and one would like to know if 

 the numbers of the other rock birds breeding there have 

 been similarly affected : Professor Newton, when sailing 

 close past the Bull in 1899, did not see more than a 

 hundred or so Gannets, but by 1902 Mr. Crowley, the 

 lighthouse-keeper, believed their numbers had recovered to 

 close on 2,000. It is certain that this improvement did not 

 last, for in 1908 Crowley's successor, Mr. Hamilton, only 

 puts the Gannets at 600, and decreasing each season. 



Neither from the Skellig nor the Bull have the young 

 Gannets ever been systematically utihsed for food, and 

 never at all that we have any record of for their grease or 

 feathers, but a resident in the vicinity remembers a few 

 being brought ashore for eating, and one of the fishermen 



* Barrington, " Migration of Birds," p. 260. 



