PERCE AND BONAVENTUKE 143 



We were now nearing the Grannets ; 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- 

 roundiug 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 4X5 " 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 x:>icture 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' 



