Bmn KocK 



181 



were cacli occupied by ;i newly hatched young bird— 



a gray ball of down, so unlike anything in feathers 



I had ever seen that, if it had not been for their 



tiny, young chick- 



enlike peex), I 



should have been 



inclined to pass it 



by as a wad of gray 



c o 1 1 o n .°° Never 



more than one of i- 



the parent l:)irds, 



either the male or 



female, was found 



on the nest, nor was 



a single Petrel seen 



about the Eock 



during the day. 



The Puffins and Petrels are now the only birds 

 nesting on the summit of the Rock, not a single de- 

 scendant of the one hundred thousand Gannets which, 

 according to Brj^aiit, occux)ied the top of the Rock 

 in 18G0 now being foiind there. To-day this s]3ecies 

 nests only on the less accessible border ledges on 

 the face of the Rock, -where they are groujDed in 

 colonies. Most of them were incubating, but sev- 

 eral were brooding their young, which ranged in 

 size from the naked, black-skinned, newly hatched 

 chick to those that had acquired the white, swan's- 

 downlike first plumage. " 



With the exception of two white, black- spotted 

 birds, all the Gannets seen, both on Bird Rock and 

 Bonaventure, were in the adult white plumage, and 

 if, as has been stated, this plumage is not gained 



i j-riirii s i'utrui reiiiovui-l from bur- 

 riiw « itli nesting material. 



