REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I917 25 



agency of the Canadian federal zoologists. In this connection it 

 may be explained that there are in the Gulf of St Lawrence two 

 colonies of these water fowl, consisting of the following birds : gannet, 

 kittiwake, brunnich murre, razor-billed auk, puffin, guillemot and 

 one or two others which nest together on widely separate islands; 

 Bonaventure, which lies 4 miles off the coast of Perce, and the " Bird 

 rocks " the northernmost part of the Magdalen islands, T20 miles 

 out to sea, eastward of the former colony. Of these two colonies 

 the remoter one, that on the " Bird rocks," has for many years 

 been regarded as the larger and undoubtedly it was so until the 

 pillage of the birds and their nests substantially reduced the census 

 of the population. The Bonaventure island colony is now undoubt- 

 edly the larger and is the annual resort of many thousands of birds 

 for nesting purposes. 



Close inshore from Bonaventure island and at the point of the 

 Perce peninsula is an insulated rock mass known as the Perce rock. 

 On its summit is a colony different from the other two and consisting 

 of two species; the herring gull and the crested cormorant. We 

 owe to the questioned habits of the cormorant the earnest effort 

 that has been, and is still being made, to rescue and conserve all 

 these three nesting places in the hope and with the reasonable expec- 

 tation of bringing them under federal protection: a procedure which 

 must be made effective soon if the bird colonies are not to suffer 

 serious destruction. The sporting fisherman of the Gaspe salmon 

 streams made formal complaint to the government that the cor- 

 morant was destroying the young of the salmon, in consequence of 

 which complaint an order was issued that the cormorant should be 

 destroyed. In protest thereto, and as a more conservative pro- 

 cedure, the order was held in abeyance until the scientific bird 

 students of the Dominion could make full investigation of the 

 indictment against the cormorants. Through several recent seasons 

 the accomplished observers of the Canadian Natural History Depart- 

 ment studied this problem, making intensive and complete examina- 

 tions of the stomach contents of the cormorants during the entire 

 period of the breeding and maturing season and after introspective 

 scrutiny returned the verdict: no cause of complaint. These inves- 

 tigations on the habits of the cormorants led to closer study of the 

 habits of other members of these bird associations and colonies, and 

 to the intensive feeling that these wonderful nesting places should 

 be brought under official protection. Even though they may seem 

 remote they are annually invaded in the most heartless and destruc- 

 tive manner, and the mortality has grown rapidly with the increase 



