414 SULA BASSANA. 



mus nearly half a mile in breadth. Unfortunately for it^ an 

 eagle that happened to be flying past^ observed it, and struck 

 it down. It was taken up dead by some people near the 

 place and brought home. 



When it meets with a shoal of herrings it gorges exces- 

 sively, so as sometimes to be unable to rise from the water for 

 a time. Crossing from Lewis to Pollen, on the mainland, in 

 the summer of 1821, 1 sailed over a dense shoal, in the midst 

 of which were numerous Gannets, some of w^hich seemed 

 unable to rise, while the rest were voraciously feeding. It 

 was remarkable that even here, where the fishes were so 

 crowded as to cause a ripple on the surface, the birds did not 

 pick them up as they sat among them, but first rose in the 

 air and then darted upon them in the usual way, frequently 

 plunging before rising to the height of half a dozen feet. On 

 another occasion, however, 8th August 1840, 1 saw a Gannet 

 in the Firth of Forth, descend among herring fry, not in the 

 usual manner, but like a Gull ; it hovered over the shoal, 

 and picked up the fishes. In the middle of summer there 

 seems to be an annual mortality among them in the Hebrides, 

 many being then found dead on the water, and others, on 

 being taken up, are found to be much emaciated. 



The Gannet may be caught by laying a herring on a piece 

 of wood, and dragging it after a boat, with a long cord fastened 

 to it. The bird descends, and either dislocates its neck by 

 the shock, or transfixes the board with its bill, and is thus cap- 

 tured. The late Mr. Macneil of Lingay informed me that being 

 once on his Avay to St. Kilda, of which he Avas tacksman, in 

 a large open boat, he was once startled by the sudden descent 

 of a Gannet upon a piece of flesh suspended within the gun- 

 wale. The force Avitli which the bird came down was so great 

 as to drive its bill through the plank. 



The following statement by Mr. John MacGillivray refers 

 to the most celebrated of all the breeding-places of this bird : 

 — " The Gannet, or Solan Goose, Sula alba (An sulair), is 

 to be seen in vast numbers about St. Kilda, from whence a 

 portion of them take their departure every morning to fish in 

 the bays and channels of the Outer Hebrides, the nearest of 

 which is about fifty miles distant. I have even seen them in 



