136 The Stork-like Birds 



first ornithologist to actually set foot there. He found the Gannets occupying 

 the whole northern half of the summit as well as many ledges along the sides and 

 in numbers that are almost incredible. He estimated the number on the summit 

 at fifty thousand pairs, with about half as many more on the ledges. His 

 description is graphic in the extreme. 



A few years later (1869) the Canadian government erected a lighthouse on 

 the Rock and this was the beginning of the end, for several means of reaching 

 the summit were provided, and the locality was resorted to by fishermen, who 

 killed the Gannets, and other species as well, by the thousands, using the bodies 

 as fish-bait. The eggs were also gathered in quantities, and by the year 1872, 

 when the Rock was visited by Mr. C. J. Maynard, a well-known ornithologist, the 

 number of Gannets occupying the summit had decreased to about five thousand 

 birds, and in 1881, Mr. William Brewster could find no more than fifty pairs. 

 Others have since visited the Rock, and for nearly twenty years no Gannets 

 have been reported as nesting on the summit. Mr. F. M. Chapman paid this 

 interesting locality a visit in the summer of 1898, when he secured many photo- 

 graphs of the bird inhabitants. He estimates the total number of Gannets at 

 fifteen hundred, which are all that remain of the one hundred and fifty thousand 

 noted by Bryant. 



Another common and widely distributed species is the Booby Gannct, or 

 Booby (5. leucogastra), as it is commonly called, which is found in tropical and 

 subtropical seas practically throughout the world, except the Pacific coast of 

 America, where its place is taken by the closely allied Brewster's Gannet (5. 

 brewsteri). On the Atlantic coast it is found as far north as Georgia, nesting on 

 certain of the West Indian islands, where, according to Bryant, it deposits -the 

 eggs, always two in number, on the bare sand or rock. The habits of life are 

 much like those of the former species, except it is frequently made the victim of 

 the Frigate-birds. 



Brewster's Booby was found by Goss on the San Pedro Martir Isle in the 

 Gulf of California, where, he says: "The birds were not wild; they seemed to 

 prefer the shelves and niches on the sides of the rocks as nesting places. They 

 lay two eggs, and in all cases collect a few sticks, seaweed, and oftfen old wing- or 

 tail-feathers; these are generally placed in a circle to fit the body, with a view, 

 I think, to keep the eggs that lie upon the rock from rolling out." 



THE FRIGATE-BIRDS 



(Family Fregatidcc] 



Sharing the tropical oceans with the Tropic-birds are the so-called Frigate- 

 birds or Man-o'-war Birds, of which three forms only are known. They are very 

 powerful flying birds from thirty to forty inches in length, remarkable at once 

 for the extremely short tarsus, greatly elongated wings, and a long, deeply forked 

 swallow-like tail. In the mature males the plumage is black throughout, 



