8 The Bird Rock Group. 



the Rock their home. The birds, furthermore, have found an 

 abundance of food in the surrounding waters. 



Bird Rock is the home during the summer of seven species of 

 birds. Named in the order of their abundance they are: Com- 

 mon and Briinnich's Murres, Razor-billed Auks, Gannets, Kitti- 

 wake Gulls, Puffins, and Leach's Petrel. Gannets are known to 

 nest in only one other place in this country, Bonaventure Island, 

 about 150 miles northwest of Bird Rock, and the remaining six 

 species rarely or never nest on the mainland; facts which illus- 

 trate how well the Rock has filled its office of bird protector. We 

 shall see, however, that owing to man's agency the inhabitants 

 of Bird Rock have greatly decreased in numbers since its 

 discovery. 



History of Bird Rock. 



The history of the Bird Rocks begins with their discovery by 

 Jacques Cartier, the venturesome French navigator, in June, 

 1534. Cartier wrote: " These islands were as full of birds as any 

 meadow is of grass, which there do make their nests, and in the 

 greatest of them there was a great and infinite number of that 

 that we called Margaulx that are white and bigger than any 

 geese, which were severed in one part. In the other were only 

 Godetz and Great Apponatz, like to those of that island that we 

 above have mentioned. We went down to the lowest part of the 

 least islands, where we killed above a thousand of those Godetz 

 and Apponatz. We put into our boats as many as we pleased, 

 for in less than an hour we might have filled thirty such boats of 

 them. We named them the islands of the Margaulx." 



The birds Cartier called " Margaulx " were undoubtedly Gan- 

 nets; his "Godetz" were probably Murres and Razor-bills; 

 while there is every reason to believe that his " Great Apponatz," 

 which he had previously found and unmistakably described, were 

 the now extinct Great Auk. It is also of interest to know that at 

 this time, during the proper season, the Rocks were the home of 

 Walrus. 



Audubon, whose energy in exploration no ornithologist has 

 surpassed, was the first naturalist beholding Bird Rock to leave 

 us a description of its wonders. On June 14, 1833, during his 

 cruise to Labrador, in the Schooner Ripley, he wrote in his journal 

 the following graphic account of the day's experiences: " About 



