BIRD ROCK 173 
of buildings with their inhabitants, I seemed to have 
been in another sphere. 
My object in visiting Bird Rock was not only to 
secure pictures of its bird life, but a certain number 
of birds for the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory, where it is proposed to represent a portion of 
the Rock with its tenants. During my absence in 
the world of birds my good assistant had turned one 
of the supply houses into a laboratory, and was 
already at work preparing specimens with which 
the active Shelbourne and attentive keepers had 
plentifully suppled her. 
A gun was necessary only in securing Gannets 
and Kittiwakes, the Murres and Razorbills being 
caught in a dip-net by the keepers; one of whom, 
having a rope about his waist which was held by his 
associate, advanced to the edge of the cliff or “cape,” 
as it is termed locally, and looked cautiously over in 
quest of the birds resting on the ledges immediately 
below. Having learned their position the net was 
thrust quickly downward, and the birds, in attempt- 
ing to escape, often flew directly into it and became 
entangled in its meshes. Puffins were captured on 
their nests in crevices in the face of the Rock or in 
the holes they had burrowed in the earth on the 
top. The latter were sometimes shared with Leach’s 
Petrel, who also occupied small burrows of their 
own. 
The schooner had dropped anchor near the Rock, 
but the wind increasing in strength, Captain Taker 
set sail for the lee of Bryon, and at midnight, when 
we concluded our day’s work, there was a promise of 
a stormy morrow, which daylight fulfilled. The 
