eres 
NORTHWEST SIDE OF 
of only five thousand birds, which nine years 
later, Mr. William Brewster discovered, had 
diminished to fifty pairs. 
This rapid decrease was due to the erec- 
tion of a lighthouse in 1869, making the top 
of the rock easily accessible by means of a 
hoisting apparatus, and thus exposing the 
birds to the attack of fishermen. Doubtless, 
also, the keepers of the light aided in driv- 
ing the birds from the nesting-site which 
ROCK, 
they had so long held undisturbed. Mr. 
Brewster also noted a fresh cause for the 
destruction of the eggs of birds nesting on 
the face of the rock in the shape of the 
cannon, which had been introduced shortly 
before his visit. He writes: “At each dis- 
charge the frightened murres fly from the 
rock in clouds, nearly every sitting bird tak- 
ing its egg into the air between its thighs, 
and dropping it after flying a few yards. 
333 
