ESTIMATE OF THE NUMBER OF GANNETS 323 



any species which lends itself to a scheme of counting more 



than another, it is the Gannet, which is large, slow in its 



movements, and very conspicuous, and, moreover, it is 



a species of which the breeding-places are so few, and all 



of them well known. In fact, the Gannet has but fifteen 



breeding-places — all of them on islands — and of what other 



European sea-bird can the same be said ? There are, 



it is true, a few northern species which breed in high 



latitudes — like the Little Auk — which have comparatively 



few breeding-sites, but none so few as fifteen. I must say 



that some of the estimates of Gannets at their breeding-places 



which have been put forward in the past, seem to an 



unbiased enquirer to be very much above the mark. 



Such estimates, I mean, as those given in a " Report on 



Herring Fisheries of Scotland " (1878, p. 171), which are 



repeated, with some variations, in Seebohm's " British 



Birds " (iii., p. 643), and elsewhere, and to which I shall 



not give further publicity by repeating them. They 



originated in a letter written by Captain S. McDonald, 



of "The Vigilant," in 1869, to Lord Caithness, which is 



printed as a note in the Report just mentioned. But 



McDonald's figures are admittedly only guesses, and 



according to most people's views they are much too high. 



The figures now submitted are supposed to be taken in 



the month of May. Let us for convenience sake fix a date, 



X 2 



