" Cahow " of tlie Bermudas. 29 



Rock," but formerly called Gurnet Head Rock, as it was 

 named on the map made before 1(j22 by Norwood. This i.sland 

 was thus called because it lies iu front of "Gurnet Head," a 

 hi<i;h cliff on Castle Island, on which a fort, now in ruins, was 

 built about 1615. This name occurs in Governor Butler's 

 ' Ilistorye,' written about 1019-1020, as well as on Norwood's 

 map of 1622. 



'I'liis name, it appears, does not refer to that of a bird (the 

 gannet), which several writers have imagined to have been 

 one of the old names given to the cahow, in consequence of 

 confusing it with the real gannet ; but there is no evidence 

 whatever to support that view. Probably Mr, Ilurdis was 

 also misled by the name of this rock when he supposed that 

 the cahow could be found breeding on it. There is no reason 

 whatever for supposing that it ever has bred there, even in 

 the earliest times, /or there is no soil on the summit in which 

 the cahow could have made its nests, as I ascertained by a 

 personal examination this year. Cooper's Island is the only 

 particular place that tlie early writers mentioned by name as 

 a breeding-place of the cahow, though they say it bred on 

 several of the smaller uninliabited islands. The soil is dee]) 

 on some parts of Cooper's Island, and at present is filled with 

 the holes of large land-crabs, where it is not cultivated. 

 Possibly the cahow may have made use of the deserted holes 

 of the crabs for its nests, instead of making new ones. 

 Cooper's Island contains about 77 acres, so that there was 

 room enough there, before it was settled, for a large colony 

 of these birds. Governor Butler wrote (about 1619) that at 

 the time of the 1G15 famine " they are found in infinite 

 numbers," breeding there. It may yet be possible to find 

 the bones of the cahow by excavations made in suitable 

 places on Cooper's Island, but the best of the soil has long 

 been cultivated. We made excavations for this purpose on 

 Castle Island and Goat Island, both long uninhabited, but 

 without success, though we found bones of other birds, many 

 fishes, two human skeletons, gun-flints, and various old relics, 

 due to their ancient garrisons. Castle Island was again 

 garrisoned during the war of 1812, after long disuse. 



What may be said of the bird can be briefly summarized 

 as follows : — 



1. The cahow is an extinct web-footed sea-bird, unknown 

 to ornithologists. It rapidly became extinct over 250 years 

 ago, as the direct result of the occupation of the islands on 

 which it bred by the earliest settlers. 



2. It was not a shearwater, nor like any other known 

 member of the petrel family. It may have been related fco 



