GOVERNMENT PROTECTION OF BIRDS 307 



BIRD RESERVATIONS IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE 

 (plates XX AND XXl) 



In the Gulf of St. Lawrence lie some of the most famous 

 haunts of sea-fowl m the world. Ever since Jacques Car- 

 tier reached the Bird Rocks, or "Isles de Margaulx," as he 

 called them, ''Margaulx" being the name the fishermen of 

 northern France gave to the gannet, on the 21st of May, 

 ^1534, up to the present time, the Bird Rocks, Bonaventure 

 [sland, and Perc^ Rock have been known to naturahsts and 

 bird lovers as great breeding-places for gannets, kittiwakes, 

 guillemots or murres of several species, razorbills, puffins, 

 gulls, petrels, and other sea-birds. At the present time the 

 Bird Rocks and Bonaventure Island constitute the chief 

 breeding-places in the western hemisphere of the gannet, 

 one of the most magnificent sea-birds in the world. 



During recent years considerable destruction of these 

 birds and their eggs by fishermen and tourists has taken 

 place, and many leading naturalists and ornithologists have 

 urged the protection of the birds on these rocks by the Do- 

 minion Government and the government of the province 

 of Quebec. In 1915 the Commission of Conservation took 

 up the question of establishing these rocks as bird sanctu- 

 aries, and, as a result of its exertions, in which other organi- 

 zations and individuals have co-operated, the Bird Rocks, 

 Bonaventure Island, and Perce Rock were, in the spring of 

 1919, created as national and provincial bird reservations 

 by concurrent legislative action on the part of the govern- 

 ment of the Province of Quebec and of the Dominion 

 Government. 



The Bird Rocks. These rocks, consisting of the Great 

 Bird Rock, on which a lighthouse has been erected, and the 

 two Lesser Bird Rocks, form part of the Magdalen Islands 

 group, the Great Bird Rock being about twenty miles north 

 of the Magdalen Islands proper. Great Bird Rock is about 

 seven acres in extent. The top of the rock, which is in- 



