208 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vii. 



colonies. When passing near the vStack of " Stack and 

 Skerry " in 1912 we noticed a much larger proportion of 

 these immature birds than at the Bass, and the same fact 

 was also noted by Mr. Harvie-Brown and Professor Newton. 

 No ornithologist has ever landed on this islet, and the 

 occasional visits of fishermen are now apparently abandoned 

 altogether. 



Tiie large breeding-station on Eldey (p. 284) is treated 

 somewhat briefly. Professor Newton's sketch gives a good 

 idea of the appearance of this remarkable rock, except that 

 the droppings of the birds cause the almost perpendicular 

 walls to appear white instead of dark as shown in the sketch. 

 We were informed in 1912 that stanchions are now fixed 

 in the rock and that the Gannet harvest is now regularly 

 worked from the Westmann Islands, so that it should not be 

 difficult to obtain details of the colony. Wliether the 

 Geirfugladrangr is also tenanted by a large colony seems 

 rather questionable, but there seems reason to suppose 

 that Grimsey is not the only breeding-place in north Iceland. 

 Mr. Gurney refers to Drangey as situated on the north-fa«^ 

 of Iceland (p. 288) but this is incorrect, as it hes half-way 

 down the Skagafjordr, nearly t\^-o degrees west of Grimsey. 

 The note in Slater's Manual of the Birds of Iceland (p. 37 ! 

 is obviously carelessly written, for he states his belief in the 

 existence of another colony " on, or near, Cape Reykjanes, 

 the north-east point of Iceland." The nortli-east point is 

 Cape Langanes. Reykjanes lies on the south-west and is 

 not far from the Fuglasker and Eldey. 



Detailed accounts are given of each of the fifteen known 

 breeding-stations of this species on both sides of the Atlantic 

 and on pp. 324-325 Mr. Gurney gives an estimate of the 

 numbers present at the beginning of the breeding-season. 

 The figures given are naturally only approximate, but are 

 in most cases rather below than above tlie mark, and the 

 total of 101,000 probably represents tolerably accurately 

 the Gannet population of the North Atlantic. 



Mr. Gurney then proceeds to deal with the life-history of 

 the Gannet and begins appropriately with the nest and egg. 

 We do not understand why the green colour of the shell 

 should be attributed on Mr. Drane's authority to "transmitted 

 light " (p. 343). The egg-shells of all the Gannets, Cormorants, 

 and Shags are pale bluish-green in colour, but this colour 

 is to a great extent concealed by a calcareous outer deposit. 

 As the shell is not perfectly opaque, the ground-colour is 

 naturally visible when viewed from within and held up to 

 the light, but where there is a defective patch in the outer 



