184 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 



birds which Dr. Bryant writes of as living on the 

 top of the Rock alone ; and of Petrels, not more than 

 fifty. 



When on the Rock I should have said that it 

 was tenanted by at least ten thousand birds, and I 

 was not a little surprised to find that the evidence 

 furnished by my photographic records gave a total 

 of about four thousand birds. However, the sight 

 of four thousand birds domiciled in one small islet 

 is sufficiently impressive to increase the pulse beat 

 of the most phlegmatic traveler; and even if this 

 estimate be too large, the Rock's merits as a bird 

 resort are too substantial to be affected by any 

 decrease in it which truth demands. 



To return to an account of the day's doings, the 

 light, as has been said, was unfavorable for photog- 

 raphy, and the time was devoted to collecting and 

 preparing specimens and making a hurried survey 

 of the bird rookeries on the Rock, with results 

 briefly set forth above ; but late in the afternoon 

 the sun gave indications of its whereabouts behind 

 the clouds, and I immediately substituted the cam- 

 era for the scalpel, and had Keeper Bourque lower 

 me in the crate in order that I might secure photo- 

 graphs of the birds observed on our ascent. 



Neither the stability of the crate nor its constant 

 turning were conditions which a photographer 

 would choose, and, without the twin-lens it would 

 have been impossible to secure pictures of the Kitti- 

 wakes 85 and Murres, who in a surprised but un- 

 alarmed manner regarded me from their nests on 

 the Rock, in some instances at a distance of not 

 more than six feet. 



