Brewster.] 392 [October 3, 



Rock, near Grindstone Island, most of those seen at the Magdalens 

 evidently came from Bird Rocks. This famous rookery was visited 

 by our party on July 4. Its wonders have been so well described 

 already by Dr. Bryant 1 and Mr. Maynard 2 that I shall confine the 

 present narrative to a brief account of the changes which have 

 taken place since their respective visits. In 1860 the number of 

 Gannets breeding on the top of Great Bird (then uninhabited) was 

 estimated by Bryant at about " fifty thousand pairs," or one hun- 

 dred thousand birds. In 1872 Maynard found this portion of the 

 colony reduced to about five thousand birds (a lighthouse had 

 been erected on the summit of the rock and several men were 

 living there). When we landed in 1881 the top of the rock was 

 practically abandoned, although there were some fifty nests at the 

 northern end which had been robbed a few days before and about 

 which the birds still lingered. The shelving places and ledges 

 around the face of the cliffs, however, were still densely popu- 

 lated, and the colony on Little Bird was probably as large as the 

 available nesting places there would allow; but the total number 

 of Gannets breeding on both islands did not, as nearly as I could 

 estimate it, exceed fifty thousand. This number, although suffic- 

 iently astonishing and impressive when the limited area of the 

 islands is considered, is, of course, insignificant in comparison 

 with that of the legions which Bryant found twenty-one years 

 before. The decrease is easily explained ; for the stringent laws 

 framed for the protection of these and other sea birds breeding 

 on the rock, are — or were in 1881 — but loosely enforced, and a 

 day rarely passed when parties did not land on both islands to 

 collect the eggs and shoot the sitting birds. The eggs are eaten, 

 and the flesh of the birds is used, in preference to anything elsa> 

 as bait in the cod fishery. The negligence on the part of the 

 Canadian government, which tolerates such open violation of its 

 statutes, cannot be too strongly condemned. 



After leaving Bird Rocks our party visited two other breeding 

 places of the Gannet : the first, on Perroquet Island near Mingan 

 Harbor ; the second, on Bonaventure Island, just north of Bay 

 Chaleur. The latter colony was a large one, and we were assured 



1 Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. vin, May 1861, pp. 65-75. 



2 " Town and Country," 1879, vol. i, nos. 4-8 % 



