68 



first going over the ground. ThiF island is, however, peculiarly 

 adapted to their wants, being covered with a thick growth of the 

 plant above mentioned, hardly elevated above the water, and at a 

 sufficient distance from the main land to prevent it being often visited 

 by the inhabitants. I found on this island a nest in a small stone hut, 

 made for the purpose of concealing the hunters in the spring, at which 

 time they shoot immense numbers of the Eider or Sea Ducks, as they 

 call them. 



I found many nests in which the down was quite clean, and am 

 inclined to believe that it is always so if the bird is undisturbed ; but 

 after having been frequently robbed, the supply not being sufficiently 

 great, it is forced to eke it out with the most convenient substitute, 

 and late in the season it is not at all uncommon to find nests without 

 any down. I found some containing fresh eggs, and others that had 

 just been finished ; after the middle of July, and as many birds had 

 already hatched their brood by the first, it is probable that others had 

 made at least three nests that season. Audubon states that the eggs 

 are deposited on the grass, &c., of which the nest is principally com- 

 posed. I did not see an instance, where there was any down, that 

 this was the case. Nearly every day, during the first week or two, 

 I found nests containing one, two, three, or more freshly laid eggs 

 Ipng on a bed of down so exquisitely soft and warm that, in that 

 almost painfully barren and frigid region, it was the ideal of comfort, 

 almost of beauty. When the bird leaves her nest without being sud- 

 denly disturbed, I believe the eggs are generally covered with down, 

 always so after the full complement has been laid. The largest number 

 of eggs found by me in a nest was six, and this in so many instances 

 that I am inclined to think it the normal number ; in color they 

 present two varieties, one of a pale greenish-olive or oil green, and 

 the other a brownish or true olive ; the former are frequently marked 

 with large spots or splashes of the same color of much greater in- 

 tensity ; the latter are invariably unspotted. After the eggs have been 

 incubated for some time, they are always more or less scratched and 

 marked, probably by the claws of the bird while setting on them or 

 rolhng them over. In shape they present little variety, being always 

 nearly oval ; the diameter is considerable. In size, the difference is 

 perhaps less than in the majority of birds. 



Four selected eggs measured as follows : 75 x 47 miU. — 83 x 55 — 

 71x53 — 75x4 7. Of these the first was the most elongated ; the 2d, 

 the largest ; the 3d, the most broadly oval, and the last the smallest. 



Sula basscma, Linn. The northerly or highest half of the summit 

 of Gannet Rock, and all the ledges on its sides of sufficient width, 

 the whole upper part of the pillar-like portion of the Little Bird, and 

 the greater part of the remaining portion of tliis rock, were covered 

 with the nests of the Gannet at the time of my visit. On the ledges 



