232 THE GANNET 



noisy Kittiwake Gulls have gone, the Gannets are to be seen 

 in undiminished numbers sitting by their young ones, but 

 T shall have more to say about their nidification in 

 another chapter. Their longer period of incubation and 

 the slowness with which the young mature account for 

 this prolonged stay. As one by one the young Gannets 

 quit the nesting ledges the old birds go too, so that 

 from the end of August to the end of October there is 

 a continual diminishing of their ranks. I thought it 

 melancholy, as September gradually passed, to see the 

 ledges each day getting barer ; and for the three men who 

 since 1902 have made the new lighthouse their home, it 

 must be like desolation stealing over the Rock when all its 

 bird-life melts away. But there are some happy excep- 

 tions, for instance, on November 1st, 1906, Mr. Laidlaw, the 

 principal,* was rejoiced at perceiving — what to him and his 

 mates must have been a cheering spectacle — no less than 

 200 fine adult Gannets sailing round and about the Rock. 

 However, very few of them as a general rule are to be seen 

 in November. 



Odour arising from the Cliffs. — The smell on the Bass Rock 

 arising from the birds is not altogether pleasant, indeed 

 a man who is not accustomed to it may be almost overcome, 



* In 1908 Mr. J. M. Campbell succeeded Mr. Laidlaw as principal of 

 the lighthouse on the Bass. 



