264 
PELECANIM. 
meant. In 1849, it was stated that — “At the larger Skellig 
island they used to abound, but since the erection of a lighthouse 
upon it, they have been confined to the small rock, where they 
still breed in considerable numbers."* * * § 
A letter from J. E. Townsend, Esq., dated Castle Townsend, 
September 22nd, 1850, informs me that the number of gannets 
breeding on the Lesser Skellig may be about 500 pair, in which 
enumeration Mr. Carter, Commander of H.M. Revenue Cruizer 
Badger, and Mr. Bates, the next officer in command, who have 
been much about the rock, agree with him. Some people at 
Yalentia state, that they pay the proprietor of the Skellig for the 
privilege of killing gannets, & c. They sell the young birds for 
food. My correspondent has never known sea-birds* eggs used 
as food, nor heard, save in the instance of the young gannets, of 
the flesh of sea-fowl being eaten in the south-west of Ireland. 
Puffins are killed at the Skellig for the sake of their feathers. t 
Prom this station the birds probably wander northward, to Round- 
stone, on the Galway coast, in summer and autumn, where they are 
commonly seen, especially during the herring fishery. J But as 
adult birds appear on all parts of the coast in the height of the 
breeding season, when it may be presumed they “ sleep at 
home,"§ they doubtless are spread round our coasts from Lundy 
Island, Ailsa, Skellig island, and occasionally, perhaps, from St. 
* Mr. R. Chute. 
f I had heard nothing of any other breeding-haunt of the gannet, than the Skellig, 
until the Stags of Broadhaven were incidentally mentioned in a letter from Mr. 
Townsend, in September 1850. On the 29th of the month, that gentleman favoured 
me with the following information on the subject. On his visiting that part of 
the coast of Mayo in a yacht in July 1886, hundreds of young gannets appeared 
near the vessel, and vast numbers of old and young were about the rocks. In a 
sketch then made of the locality, this species was introduced as a characteristic bird. 
Mr. Townsend remarks : — “ There cannot he the least doubt that the gannet breeds 
at Broadhaven. In every sense they seemed quite ‘ at home’ there. The Stags are 
huge insulated rocks, apparently as high as the Lesser Skellig, towering over the 
ocean at a considerable distance from the shore ; — steep, craggy, and uninhabited. 
It was a sort of relief when we sailed away from their awful sides and gloomy 
shadows.” 
X The late Mr. J. Nimmo. 
§ Mr. Knox, however, remarks that — “ During the night they sleep on the water 
so profoundly as frequently to allow the boats to pass over them.” — ‘ Birds of Sussex,’ 
p. 243. 
