330 THE GANNET 



speaking, in Europe, yet it only lays one egg.* Of course 

 we must bear in mind that the numbers of all birds 

 fluctuate, and from so many causes, that what is the most 

 abundant species now, may be by no means so in another 

 quarter of a century. 



In the southern hemisphere, judging from what Mr. 

 William Sclater and others tell us, it is very likely that the 

 dominant species would be the prolific Jackass Penguin 

 [Spheniscus demersus (L.)).t % 



* Professor Newton — an exceptionally cautious writer — thought that 

 he might venture on an estimate of 3,000,000 Puffins for the Shiant Isles 

 (" Dictionary of Birds," p. 751), and the Rev. Neil Mackenzie would 

 allow 3,000,000 more for St. Kilda (" Annals of Scottish Nat. Hist.," 1905, 

 p. 151), where, according to Mr. J. Sands, 89,000 were taken in one year — 

 the year 1876 (" Life in St. Kilda "). See also Wiglesworth's " St. Kilda " 

 (p. 59). But it is far from being in the British Isles only that Puffins abound. 

 There are endless streams of them in the Faeroes, and here we are on safe 

 ground, having statistics of the numbers formerly taken. In his 

 " Fseroernes Fuglefauna " (1862), Sysselmand Muller — a most reliable 

 naturalist — tells us that 235,000 Puffins used to be annually gathered 

 by the inhabitants. Now there is no longer the same demand for them, 

 but this figure was no doubt quite correct when Muller wrote, and the same 

 number might be gathered again. In Iceland also the Pviffin must be 

 very abundant, for in 1897 the number taken at one station — Sulusker, 

 see p. 281 — was ascertained by Mr. E. Gurney to have been 31,143. 



t 5'ee the photograiihs of thein in " Three Voyages of a Naturalist," 

 by M. J. Nicoll, and in " The Condor," 1907, p. 71 ; also see " Fauna of 

 South Africa " (IV., p. 520). In 1901 Mr. Sclater tells us 638,000 eggs 

 were gathered by Government agents ; in 1902, 469,400. 



% Birds in Markets. — -Nothing which will help vis to the establishing of 

 some standard whereby we may gauge bird populations is to be desijised, 

 and as I have gone out of the way to discuss the subject, I cannot help 



