184 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 
birds which Dr. Bryant writes of as hving on the 
top of the Rock alone; and of Petrels, not more than 
fifty. 
When on the Rock I should have said that it 
was tenanted by at least ten thousand birds, and I 
was not a little surprised to find that the evidence 
furnished by my photographic records gave a total 
of about four thousand birds. However, the sight 
of four thousand birds domiciled in one small islet 
is sufficiently impressive to increase the pulse beat 
of the most phlegmatic traveler; and even if this 
estimate be too large, the Rock’s merits as a bird 
resort are too substantial to be affected by any 
decrease in it which truth demands. 
To return to an account of the day’s doings, the 
light, as has been said, was unfavorable for photog- 
raphy, and the time was devoted to collecting and 
preparing specimens and making a hurried survey 
of the bird rookeries on the Rock, with results 
briefly set forth above; but late in the afternoon 
the sun gave indications of its whereabouts behind 
the clouds, and I immediately substituted the cam- 
era for the scalpel, and had Keeper Bourque lower 
me in the crate in order that I might secure photo- 
graphs of the birds observed on our ascent. 
Neither the stability of the crate nor its constant 
turning were conditions which a photographer 
would choose, and, without the twin-lens it would 
have been impossible to secure pictures of the Kitti- 
wakes® and Murres, who in a surprised but un- 
alarmed manner regarded me from their nests on 
the Rock, in some instances at a distance of not 
more than six feet. 
