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and around Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, but most colonies are relatively inaccesible. 0n the Bird Rocks north of the Magdalen Islands, Gannets and Thick-billed and Common Murres nest in large numbers, but the colonies are quite inaccesible.

In order to see enormous concentrations of hundreds of thousands of birds one must go to NewaundIand. At Cape Saint Mary's, at Witless Bay, on Baccalieu and Funk Islands, seabirds in tremendous abundance carry on the squabbles and cares of their urban life. Cape Saint Mary's and Nitless Bay are provincial sanctuaries, and visitors are offered guided t0urs.

The habit of nesting on high cliff ledges or isolated islands has served seabirds well over the centuries in protecting them from land predators.

But nesting on islands does not protect them from oilspills, pesticides and poaching; Nor can it eliminate direct disturbance of humans (and their pets) at the breeding colonies. If one approaches a colony too close adult birds

leave and their eggs and young are vunerable to gull and crow predation, with sometimes disastrous results.

The seabird sanctuaries I have mentioned in this article are all carefully managed so that the thousands of visitors each year cause little or no disturbance. But there are hundreds of other colonies where no direct pro- tection is provided (and this includes colonies on Prince Edward Island). All visitors must become informed as to which colonies are vunerable to‘ predation‘to avoid distrubance.

David Cairns Biology Deparment Laval University

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