The Oologists' Record, December 1, 1923. 73 



mark. The summit of the island is covered with thick grass and 

 honeycombed with the burrows of Puffins. It is only with the 

 greatest difficulty that one can land, and unless the sea is like a 

 pond, it is out of the question, owing to the heavy swell and 

 treacherous tide rips in the vicinity. 



The Gannet colony is on the North-West end of the island, 

 which is precipitous, and here they breed, some of them on a rock 

 named the " West Tump," and others along the edge of the cliff 

 ranging from about eighty feet to one hundred and twenty feet 

 above the sea. The nests were composed mainly of seaweed, 

 occasionally a few small tufts of grass and bits of stick being added, 

 the whole mass cemented together with the birds' droppings. These 

 nests formed mounds ranging from a few inches high to over a foot 

 where the birds had built on the same site year after year. 



The majority of them were very sparingly lined with fresh, dry 

 seaweed in an attempt to form a slight bed for the single egg to 

 lie on. Others appeared to be merely the old foundations of nests 

 with no attempt made at re-lining, being simply a slight hollow 

 tiodden down, in which the egg was deposited. 



I found eggs in all stages of incubation, from fresh to chipping 

 out, and young chicks ranging from just hatched, when they are 

 both naked and blind, to a fair size covered with down. The stench 

 and uproar of this colony are indescribable. Masses of putrefying 

 fish lay about in all directions, and the smell was almost over- 

 powering. As a great many nests were some distance from the edge 

 of the rocks and placed on soil, the accumulations of rotten fish 

 and excretions had formed a deep crust. Owing to the heat of the 

 sun, the top of this had baked hard, and when v/alking one often 

 broke through, going calf deep in the putrefying mass. The birds 

 would all rush to the edge of the rocks and get on the wing as we 

 walked through the colony, circling round and settling down again 

 after we had passed by. Putting my estimate at a low figure, 

 there must have been at least eight hundred to one thousand pairs 

 of Gannets breeding, and the total number of Gannets on the 

 island I estimated at about three thousand. 



The eggs very soon become soiled and stained, but when fresh 

 the chalky deposit on the shell is frequently smeared with blood. 

 One nest which I observed contained two eggs, these no doubt 

 (16893)z A 3 



