IRISH BREEDING-STATIONS OP THE GANNET. 475 



line. The height and size of these rocks, compared with the 

 Skelligs, is as follows : — 



The Bull, Cow, and Calf are about sixteen miles S.E. of the 

 Skelligs. The lighthouse on the Calf Kock was destroyed by a 

 great storm in November, 1881, and it was decided to erect the 

 new lighthouse on the Bull Rock. The works were com- 

 menced this year, and a steamer was stationed at Castletown 

 Berehaven, in April, to convey the workmen to and from the 

 Eock. These men are engaged blasting and quarrying away the 

 summit of the Bull, to make a foundation for the new lighthouse. 



Owing to my connection with the British Association Com- 

 mittee on the Migration of Birds at Lighthouses, permission 

 was obtained to go out in the steamer — a concession not readily 

 granted. The landing is so difficult in bad weather that the 

 workmen had only been on the rocks fourteen days in two 

 months. I asked my friend Mr. E. J. Ussher to accompany me, 

 and Mr. J. N. White, of Waterford, and my nephew completed 

 the party. 



Until we were quite near the Bull, comparatively few birds 

 were visible, but thousands filled the air as we anchored about 

 150 yards from the rock. The firing of a shot was followed by 

 the appearance of a greater number of birds than I remember 

 to have seen, except at St. Kilda, I spent three weeks on St. Kilda 

 in 1883, living in a tent on the main island, and running some 

 risk of spending three months there, or perhaps a whole winter 

 had the weather proved boisterous. At St. Kilda, also, I was 

 much struck by the scarcity of birds a little way out at sea. 

 When approaching this remote group of islands, at a distance of 

 two or three miles, one could scarcely suppose he was near the 

 greatest breeding-place of sea-fowl in the British Isles. 



To climb the Bull at the present landing-place would be 

 difficult, were it not for the rope ladder-used by the workmen. 



