136 THE GANNET 



Whatever may have been the number of Gannets, young 

 and old, captured by the natives in the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries, that number went on steadily decreas- 

 ing until it had sunk in 1895 to the comparatively small 

 figures of 1,280 young and 1,920 old ones — 3,200, according 

 to Mr. J. Young,* and even their feathers were no longer 

 worth collecting. 



Writing in 1902 Dr. Wiglesworth says : " Up to about 

 twenty years ago enormous quantities of feathers [of 

 Puffins, Gannets, etc.] were exported as payment for 

 rent, or in exchange for meal and other necessaries, and 

 immense numbers of birds were killed for the sake of 



their feathers alone The feathers indeed were 



at that time their chief source of liveUhood."t Their 

 quality, however, varied. The feathers of a Guillemot were 

 not very good. According to the Rev. Neil Mackenzie 

 they were too close and short on the upper part of the 

 bird, and too thin and deficient in curl on the under parts. 

 One Gannet would yield as much feathers as ten Guillemots 

 and of better quahty.J The grease was also boiled down 

 and used as oil to a large extent, but its value had begun 

 to decline too. 



In that same year — 1902 — the take was 300 Gannets, be- 

 sides, of course, other birds, as I subsequently learnt from Mr. 



* "Annals Scottish N. H.," 1902, p. 87. t t-C-, p. 20. % t.c. p. 149. 



