l6o DuTCHER, Report of Committee on Bird Proteciion. T ^^ 



" History shows that two centuries ago hundreds of seals resorted 

 here to rear their young. 



"Of the birds the most interesting are the Puffins. These breed 

 in a pile or windrow of large angular blocks of granite, which have 

 the appearance of a sea wall. Doubtless the wall was formed by 

 the action of the sea during tempests of extreme violence, but at 

 ordinary times the sea does not come within two hundred yards of 

 it, and between it and the sea line grow grass and other land plants. 

 I am told by Mr. Everett Smith of Portland, who visited the island 

 about twenty years ago, and Mr. A. C. Bent of Taunton, Mass., 

 that no Puffins breed elsewhere in the vicinity of Grand Manan. 

 This fact gives an additional interest to this colony and emphasizes 

 the importance of having it thoroughly protected. 



" The Puffins are much tamer than Sea Pigeons and are 

 possessed of great curiosity, or, it might be said, they are less pru- 

 dent than Sea Pigeons. From the edge of the rocks where they 

 breed it is certain that their nesting will not be much interfered 

 with, but shooting the birds must be constantly guarded against. 



" Inspection of the mass of rocks where they breed shows con- 

 siderable quantities of straw scattered in every passage to the bed 

 rock, dropped by the birds in building their nests. By watching 

 them go in and out to feed their young, one could easily see that 

 every opening of the wall leads to several nests, probably a nest at 

 the extremity of every passage. While ;^7, Puffins was the largest 

 number seen by me at one time, Mr. John Ganang, superintendent 

 of the masonry of the Lighthouse Department, who had spent 

 more than a week here in his official capacity, told me that three 

 hundred is the number resorting here. Mr. Ganang's statement I 

 considered entitled to confidence as I found him to be a gentleman 

 of candor, judgment and refinement, and with a fondness for birds 

 and plants. 



" This indicates an increase in the number of Puffins during the 

 twenty years that have elapsed since Mr. Smith's visit, when sixty 

 was the number. But this is the natural outcome of the protection 

 afforded them by Captain Seeley, a protection which seems to have 

 been absolute. 



"It was a most interesting spectacle to see the top of the wall 

 adorned by the above-mentioned 33 Puffins, resting here seemingly 



