THE BIRD ROCK GROUP 



A Study of an Island Colony 



To the preserving influence of island-life we owe the continued exis- 

 tence of many birds that have long ceased to live, or, at least, to nest, 

 on the mainland. In every instance, however, whether the island be a 

 thousand scjuare miles or one square foot (as a Grebe's floating nest) in 

 extent, it owes the preservation of its bird-life to the same cause — the 

 entire or comparative absence of bird enemies, terrestrial mammals in 

 particular. 



Bird Rock, with its neighbor. Little Bird Rock, belongs to the Magdalen 

 Grou)) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is 351 yards long, from 50 to 140 

 yards wide, and rises abruptly from the sea to a height of from 80 to 

 140 feet. Its vertical rocky walls are weathered into innumerable 

 ridges, shelves and crevices — fit sites for the nests of the sea-birds that 

 for centuries have made the Rock their home. The birds, furthermore, 

 have found an abundance of food (chiefly fish) , in the surrounding waters. 



The Bird Rock was not definitely planned as a "habitat group," but 

 rather as a picture of part of a famous and impressive bird colony and a 

 permanent record of a characteristic phase of island-life and, owing to 

 circumstances, it was not even installed as originally planned. 



The material for the group was collected in July, 1898, and for many 

 years the group marked the highest point reached in the presentation of 

 bird-life. The group includes examples of the various species that 

 lireed — one can hardly say nest — on the rock, the most noteworthy and 

 noticeable being the great white Gannets. Then come the ]\Iurres, 

 Razorl)ills and PufUns, the graceful Kittiwake, and, last and least. 

 Leach's Petrel, seldom seen because it nests in little burrows like rat- 

 holes and comes and goes at night. 



The Bird Rocks are of interest alike to naturalist and historian, for 

 their story begins with the discovery of these httle islets by Jacques 

 Cartier in June, 1534. He records his visit as follows: "These islairds 

 were as full of birds as any meadow is of grass, which there do make 

 their nests, and in the greatest of them there was a great and infinite 

 numljcr of that that we called Margaulx that are white and bigger than 

 any geese, which were severed in one part. In the other were only 

 Godetz and Great Apponatz, like to those of that island that we above 

 have mentioned. We went doAra to the lowest part of the least islands, 

 whei-e we killed above a thousand of those Godetz and Apponatz. We 

 put into our boats as many as we pleased, for in less than an hour we 

 might have filled thirty such boats of them. We named them the islands 

 of the Margaulx." 



