H The Bird Rock Group. 



the writer visited the Rock in July, 1898, and procured for the 

 American Museum of Natural History the material and photo- 

 graphs which made possible the preparation of this group. 



It is quite as difficult to land on Bird Rock to-day as it was in 

 Audubon's time, but good fortune brought us to the spot during 

 calm weather, and the boat in which the light-keeper met our 

 schooner was readily beached on the hand's-breadth of shore 

 constituting the only port of entry. Once landed, however, the 

 top is now easily reached in a small crate which is hoisted by 

 means of a crane and windlass, operated by the keeper of the 

 lighthouse. The experience of passing so near nesting Murres 

 and Kittiwakes that they may almost be touched is not the least 

 interesting part of a journey through space which it is believed 

 most visitors to the Rock will find possessed of more or less 

 novelty. Alighting on the grassy summit of the Rock, one sees 

 that it contains, in addition to the light- and bomb-houses, a 

 small collection of buildings for the storage of supplies which are 

 brought only twice each year, and for the accommodation of the 

 keeper, his family, and three assistants. With the exception of 

 a few Puffins and Petrels, which live in burrows, no birds now 

 nest on top of the Rock, but they crowd the jutting ledges or 

 eroded shelves of the precipitous faces of the island. In places 

 one can easily clamber down to these ledges and there he will be 

 surrounded by curious groups of sea-fowl, some fearlessly stand- 

 ing, while others whirl by in an endless procession. 



In view of the years of persecution to which these birds have 

 been subjected, they are still remarkably tame, and, to a bird- 

 lover, it is an especially grateful experience to be at once received 

 into their ranks. No one, indeed, who has not had the experience 

 can imagine the peculiar sensations which possess the naturalist 

 when, for the first time, he visits a bird island where essentially 

 primeval conditions prevail, and where the birds are so abundant 

 and so unsuspicious that one seems to have reached the heart of 

 the bird world and found existing there the ideal relation between 

 man and the lower animals. 



The Birds of the Rock. 

 Murres {Uria lomvia et Uria troile). The Murres, together 

 with the Razor-billed Auk and the Puffin, are members of the 



