BIRD ROCK 



F as a result of a conference be- 

 tween the bii-ds and the Audubon 

 Society a home were to be selected 

 which should prove a secure re- 

 tT-eat for certain of tlie featbered 

 kind, I imagine tbat Bird Rock, 

 in its primal condition, would 

 have admirably filled tbe requirements set forth by 

 both conferees. 



With precipitous, rocky walls weathered into 

 innumerable ledges, shelves, and crevices — all fit 

 nesting sites — one might think of it as a colossal 

 lodging house for the countless sea-bird tenants who 

 find here not only a suitable place for the reproduc- 

 tion of their young, but in the surrounding waters 

 an abundant and unfailing supply of food. Add 

 to these conditions the Rock's isolation and inac- 

 cessibility, its shoreless outline, and the difficulty 

 with which it may be ascended, and we have indeed 

 an ideal refuge for sea fowl, one in which, unless 

 they were subjected to special persecution, they 

 might have continued to exist for centuries, had not 

 the transforming influences of civilization reached 

 even to this isle of the sea. 



Bird Rock is about fifty miles northwest of Cape 

 Breton, the nearest mainland, and twelve east of 

 153 



