Page:Condor6(3).djvu/14

 May, x9o 4 [ THE CONDOR 67 (I9) Pigeon guillemot rookeries at East End and along the south shore are all of the past. On Seal Rock can still be seen a large rookery of tourres and a few cormorants, as well as the only remaining colony of sea-lions. A much larger number of these sea brutes were located on Sea Lion Islet in x887. There was also a colony of cormorants at the top as shown by the accompanying illustration, from a photograph taken at the time. Another colony ot sea-lions was living on the fiat and rocks at West End, where Murre Rocks lie. Therookeries as they occurred in x9o 3 are as follows: (A) Western gull near where lornrally were Brandt cormorants. (B) A large colony of several hundred Brandt cormorants are located on a slope facing Murre Rocks. This is at present the largest colony of this species. (C) Baird cormorants, a few nests along the shelving face of the divide between Main Top and West End. (D) Western gulls. A scattered colony have their homes here among the tumbled- down rocks. The sea parrots or , puffins live here on social ternis with the gulls. (E) A colony of ridge where they were seen abundantly in t887. (F) Pigeon guillimots are seen at this old nesting site and have increased , ....., ,. ] in numbers. Vhere formerly the Farallone - cormorant was the most abund- " _ ant of the shags, there is now left only a colony of about sex'- enty, at West End, mentioned by Mr. Kaeding as having young, in his article in Tt. CONDOR, September, 1903 . It would be natural to expect, that alter uearly half a century of raiding of the tourres for their eggs, the rookeries would show some decrease in size; and also that the collecting of their eggs for two or more months would  ', - effect the fertility and size of those deposited, at a time xvhen s^-,o.,s- there should naturally be young. I was able to collect a considerable series of the small eggs from the thousand brought in from the rookeries during my stay of six weeks on the island. All were taken during July x887, and I append a table of their measurements, along with the dimensions of the same number of typical eggs. The engraving will show their relative sizes when viewed side by side. That the National Government has been wise in protecting this island bird life no one will deny who has once observed its wonders.