78 The Ool agists' Record, Deccmher 1, 1923. 



being deposited by different birds, as I found another nest containing 

 a fresh egg and one chick a few days old. 



A series of these eggs vary in shape from thin to broad elongate 

 ovate, and from thin pointed ovals to broad pointed ovals. 



In size they range from 59 mm., to 70 mm. in length and fiom 

 30 mm. to 35 mm. in diameter. 



As far as my observations carried jne, the Gannet when fishing 

 does not close its wings till just before striking the water. I 

 watched many as they wheeled round the island and out to sea 

 in search of food. The method employed was always the same — 

 a steep glide with wings extended, closing them just before striking 

 the water, the actual dive always being very clean and neat. The 

 birds when re-appearing bob up out of the sea like corks, owing to 

 the buoyancy of their air cells. This re-appearance is very marked 

 in the Gannet, and quite unlike the re-appearance of the Guillemot 

 or Razorbill. One might almost imagine that the Gannet had been 

 shot to the surface from beneath the waves. 



Very little appears to be known regarding the early history of 

 Gannets on Grassholm Island. It is presumed that a fair number 

 have come over from Lundy Island forty- five miles away, which 

 they forsook in 1909 owing to constant persecution, though in 

 1907 and 1908 every effort was made at Lundy to induce the birds 

 to return to their historical haunts, and the Bird Watchers' Com- 

 mittee took the matter up. 



However that is as it may be, and no Gannets have been 

 reported to my knowledge as breeding on Lundy since 1909. 



Grassholm Island, on the other hand, appears to be doing well, 

 one reason being that it is uninhabited and the other that it is a 

 long way out and very difficult to land there. Very few young 

 Gannets were reared in 1905. In 1906 about one hundred to 

 one hundred and thirty got off, and in 1907 about three hundred. 

 The weather in 1907 during the breeding season being very bad, 

 fishermen and others were unable to land, and so the birds were 

 unmolested. One old fisherman, named John Watts, could certify 

 to Gannets on Grassholm for over forty years, while another very 

 old inhabitant, named Wilhams, of St. Davids, remembered his 

 father-in-law, Henrj^ Bowen, telling him there were a few Gannets 

 on Grassholm as far back as 1820. In 1886 Mr. M. D. Propert 



