IRISH BREEDING -STATION'S OF THE GANNET. 479 



Since writing the above I have received a letter from 

 Mr. Eobert Warren, of Ballina, Co. Mayo, in which he says : — 

 " I have no authentic record of the Gannet beeeding on the 

 Stags of Broadhaven. Dr. Darling sent his brother there in the 

 summer of 1882, but there was no trace of them, nor did a 

 young cliff-climber whom they employed know of their breeding 

 within his memory. Sir E. Payne- Gallwey (' The Fowler in 

 Ireland,' p. 261) must have mistaken what I wrote to him. 

 Mr. Townsend's account to Thompson dates back to July, 1836. 

 Is it possible young Gannets fly in that month ? " Mr. A. E. 

 Knox said, January 3rd, 1851 (see Thompson, vol. iii,, Appendix, 

 p. 451), that Gannets used to breed on the Stags of Broadhaven 

 when he was a boy, " but not in numbers." My cautious friend Mr. 

 Warren adds, "neither Mr. Knox nor Mr. Townsend saw nests." 



The Fastnet Rock, eight miles S.W. of Cape Clear, Co. Cork, is 

 inaccurately given as a breeding-place in Sir R. Payne-Gallwey's 

 book (p. 136), for neither the Gannet nor any other bird breeds 

 on the Fastnet. The light-keeper there has just written to me, 

 — " The Gannet does not breed on the rock, nor never did ; in 

 fact, no bird could breed there, as the rock is too small." Anyone 

 who has seen the model of the Fastnet in the Irish Lights Office 

 can appreciate the truth of this remark. The lighthouse was 

 erected in 1848, and the rock is only 52 feet above the sea-level. 



Richard M. Barrington. 



Early in June last, in company with Messrs. R. M. Barrington 

 and J. N. White, I visited the coasts of West Cork and Kerry, 

 with a view to Ornithology. Leaving Berehaven at 4 a.m., 

 we coasted along the rock-bound peninsula of which Dursey 

 Island forms a continuation. We then struck out into the 

 Atlantic, towards those last fragments of land, the Cow, the 

 Calf, and the Bull Rocks. On the latter (our special destination) 

 a lighthouse is about to be erected. As we approached the Bull, 

 which rises 293 feet out of the Atlantic, we were impressed by 

 its appearance. The front presented to us is conical, like the 

 front of a saddle, with slightly bulging sides, terminating below 

 in cliffs. The island is pierced from end to end with a huge 

 arch, through which the sea flows. The eastern and western 

 ends are precipitous, and on the lofty ledges above the arch we 



