io The Bird Rock Group. 



took my spy-glass, and in an instant the strangest picture stood 

 before me. They were birds we saw — a mass of birds of such 

 size as I never before cast my eyes on. The whole of my party 

 stood astounded and amazed, and we came to the conclusion 

 that such a sight was of itself sufficient to invite any one to come 

 across the gulf to view it at this season. The nearer we ap- 

 proached, the greater our surprise at the enormous number of 

 these birds, all calmly seated on their eggs or newly hatched 

 broods, their heads all turned to windward and toward us. The 

 air above for one hundred yards, and for some distance around 

 the whole Rock was filled with Gannets on the wing, which, from 

 our position, made it appear as if a heavy fall of snow was 

 directly above us." ' 



After this description one can readily imagine Audubon's dis- 

 appointment when the freshening wind prevented his landing on 

 the Rock, and we therefore must turn to the account of Dr. 

 Henry Bryant as that of the first naturalist to set foot on Bird 

 Rock. This was on June 23, i860, when, after a climb which 

 he characterized as both " difficult and dangerous," Dr. Bryant 

 reached the top of the Rock. In addition to the birds found 

 living on the sides of the Rock, he states that its entire northerly 

 half was tenanted by Gannets, and after measuring the area they 

 occupied, he estimated that this one colony alone contained no 

 less than 100,000 birds, while the number living on the sides of 

 the Rock and on Little Bird he placed at 50,000. 2 



Bryant was followed by Maynard, Brewster, Cory, Lucas, and 

 others, but in the meantime a change had occurred which made 

 the Rock more accessible and at the same time greatly reduced 

 its feathered population. In 1869 a lighthouse was erected on 

 its summit and within three years the colony of Gannets nesting 

 there decreased from 100,000 to 5000 birds; while nine years 

 later only 50 birds remained. 



This practical extermination of the summit-nesting birds was 

 due in part to the light-keepers, who evidently did not care for 

 the close companionship of 50,000 pairs of by no means sweet- 

 voiced birds, and, la.ter, to the use of a cannon, which, during 

 the fogs so prevalent in this region, was discharged at short 



1 Audubon and his Journals, I., p. 360. 



3 Bryant, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1861. 



