BIRD ROCK 



181 



were each occupied by a newly hatched young bird— 



a gray ball of down, so unlike anything in feathers 



I had ever seen that, if it had not been for their 



tiny, young chick- 

 enlike peep, I 



should have been 



inclined to pass it 



by as a wad of gray 



cotton."'' Never 



more than one of 



the parent birds, 



either the male or 



female, was found 



on the nest, nor was 



a single Petrel seen 



about the Rock 



during the day. 



The Puffins and Petrels are now the only birds 

 nesting on the summit of the Rock, not a single de- 

 scendant of the one hundred thousand Gannets which, 

 according to Bryant, occupied the top of the Rock 

 in 18(J0 now being found there. To-day this sjsecies 

 nests only on the less accessible border ledges on 

 the face of the Rock, wdiere they are grouped in 

 colonies. Most of them were inculiating, but sev- 

 eral were brooding their young, which ranged in 

 size from the naked, black-skinned, newly hatched 

 chick to those that had acquired the white, swan's- 

 downlike first plumage.'" 



With the exception of two white, black- spotted 

 birds, all the Gannets seen, both on Bird Rock and 

 Bonaventure, were in the adult white plumage, and 

 if, as has been stated, this plumage is not gained 



