238 THE GANNET 



the Rock the tide bears away all signs of such accidents." 

 With such a character for quarrelsomeness, it is a wonder 

 that there is any harmony at all in this thickly-packed 

 nursery of birds, and that so many young Gannets are 

 ultimately safely brought through the danger is rather a 

 matter for surprise also. It may be put down to the 

 Gannets' credit, that in 1909 a downy nestling which had 

 fallen from its ledge, was recovered by Mr. Campbell and 

 placed in the nest of a pair which had no young one, and 

 was at once successfully adopted. 



Former Breeding Area. — Time was — that is to say, 

 some 350 years ago — when the Gannets' breeding ground 

 was evidently much more extensive than it is now. At that 

 period, their nests, carefully protected from harm, must 

 have reached over all the upper portions of the Rock. 

 In those days the men of Haddington knew they had got 

 something worth taking care of. Not only did the occupants 

 of the Bass do all they could for the great birds, but in 

 1592 the State had stepped in, and enacted that for their 

 value, and for the "great commodity " which they afforded 

 to "the subjects of this realm " they were to be honourably 

 protected by Parliament.* In 1651 we find the celebrated 

 physiologist William Harvey, speaking of the slopes of the 

 Bass as so thickly covered with nests that a man could scarce 



* Acts, Jac. VI., 1592. 



