May. 1908.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 17 



of the terrific precipices which surrounded the rookery on three 

 sides, jumped off and majestically flew away.* How beautiful 

 they looked as they circled and recircled, wheeled and rewheeled 

 in their flight over the rookery, or poised in the air as if they 

 contemplated a return to their young ones, and when the soft, 

 yellow light of the setting sun streamed over their snowy plumage 

 and lit up the heavens with an azure blue the effect was extremely 

 weird, and as they came flying back and alighted amongst their 

 young ones they created an impression in one's mind similar to 

 that on viewing a picture of angels descending through space to 

 relieve suffering humanity. But the cackling of the old birds on 

 regaining their young ones, together with the pungent odour of 

 the rookery, rapidly disillusioned one. When approached closely 

 the old birds, in their excitement, vomited up an oily, fishy mass. 

 When sailors catch these birds at sea and place them on the 

 vessel's deck, they eject the contents of their stomach in their 

 excitement. This the sailors erroneously attribute to sea- 

 sickness. 



The time had now arrived for the boatmen to return, so we 

 scrambled down the cliff to the dinghy, and with a farewell wave 

 of the hand they departed, leaving me marooned on the islet — a 

 veritable Robinson Crusoe, as it were — a lonely man on a lonely 

 rock. I had now time to revisit the Gannets' rookery, and took 

 the opportunity of observing their habits more closely. Young 

 in all stages of development were found, also a few addled eggs 

 reclining in their mound-shaped nests, which are dished in the 

 centre to receive the single white egg which the Gannet lays. 

 The nest needs to be dished so as to give a purchase to the bird's 

 feet, and it also needs to be firmly fixed to its rocky foundation, 

 since it is built on the most exposed portion of the cliffs, and it 

 is a wonder that the birds are not blown completely off the 

 rookery during the gales that rage along this part of the Southern 

 Ocean. I was privileged to notice how the Gannets hold on 

 during a stiff breeze. This was accomplished by the birds by 

 sitting face to wind so as to offer as little resistance as possible to 

 it, with their webbed feet flattened on the outside declivity of 

 their mound on the side which sloped to windward, whilst their 

 strong, stiff tail feathers were propped against the inside ridge, of 

 their saucer-shaped nest, and so an excellent leverage was 

 obtained. Most of the brooding birds' tails were very much 

 worn by using them in this manner, as diey held on and 

 protected their young ones with the vent feathers. Whether 

 they adopt this method of holding on whilst sitting on their eggs 

 remains to be ascertained. The nest is composed for the most 

 part of guano, intermingled with a little soil, seaweed, and waste 

 matter, and is patted down into a smooth and solid mass, as if it 



* See plate z. 



