PERCH AND BONAVENTURE 143 
We were now nearing the Gannets; desiring to 
secure a picture of a fully occupied ledge, I urged 
due caution, and advanced quietly to the edge of 
the cliff. The point was well chosen—almost di- 
rectly beneath us, and about halfway down to the 
sea, there being a broad, rocky shelf so thickly 
dotted with nesting Gannets that every bird in the 
group was within reach of his immediately sur- 
rounding fellows.” It was an astonishing picture 
of bird life, but only a fragment of what we had 
beheld from the sea. Under the circumstances, 
however, this fragment brought more satisfaction 
than had been before received from the entire Gan- 
net colony. 
The 4 x 5 “ Premo” was now erected, care being 
taken to make no move which would alarm the 
birds, and several exposures were made at leisure. 
Then changing the lens to an old “ Henry Clay,” 
and attaching several elastics to the shutter, I pre- 
pared to make a flight picture of the birds as, at the 
report of my gun, they left their nests. All ready, 
I took firm hold of the bulb and gave the word to 
the captain to fire. 
The result may fairly be called a failure. As far 
as we could determine, the birds gave no evidence 
of hearing the shot or the others which followed, and 
our best efforts did not succeed in making a single 
Gannet leave its nest. Like Darwin’s Hawk and 
Moseley’s Penguins, these birds seemed happily 
ignorant of man and his ways. One could doubt- 
less descend to their ledge without causing them to 
leave it. 
It is conceivable that the wearing of Gannets’ 
