434 THE GANNET 



sluggishness, it is not without danger to the Gannet — 

 in fact, it proved a fatal quality in the days when, 

 being in demand for food, the fowler stole upon them 

 unawares. His first effort Avas to catch the sentinel, 

 and, this accomplished, the remainder of the party of 

 Gannets were surprised and captured before they had 

 time to awake. 



Is the Gannet Increasing ? — In spite of the mortality 

 which goes on among the young Gannets, and in spite of 

 all the accidents, to be mentioned immediately, to 

 which this species is subject, there can be no doubt 

 that it is on the increase. When on the coast o^ 

 Kerry in 1908, I heard the most encouraging accounts 

 from the fishermen of the prosperity of the Gannets on 

 the Little Skellig, which a recent letter from Mr. Byrns, 

 the principal of the lighthouse, dated August 11th, 1911, 

 confirms. The same satisfactory report, although in a 

 less degree, was given at Ailsa Craig in 1905. It is 

 difficult to form an}' correct opinion about the great settle- 

 ment at St. Kilda, but Mr. W. Evans discerns an increase at 

 the Bass Rock. At Grimsey also ten pairs have multiplied 

 into fifty, according to Mr. B. Hantzsch.* A recent writer 

 lays it down as an axiom that the numerical level of a species 

 is largely dependent upon the supply of food which it finds 



* " Vogolwelt Islands " (1904), 



