408 SULA BASSANA. 



Female. — The female is similar to the male. 



Length 33 inches ; extent of wings 67 ; bill along the 

 ridge 4-f^ ; tarsus 2 jV ; middle toe and claw 4j--y . 



The above descriptions are from a very fine male shot on 

 the I3ass, by Mr. De Jersey, in the beginning of May 1824, 

 and a fimale from the same place, examined in July of the 

 same year. The digestive organs, however, are described 

 from a male shot on the Bass in August, 1836. 



Habits. — Gannets appear to be constantly resident on 

 the coasts of Britain, though they change their stations, and 

 may disappear entirely at one season from a place which they 

 had frequented in another. In winter they are often to be 

 seen in the Channel, and even among the Orkney Islands, 

 and I have seen some in the Firth of Forth in the beoinnins; 

 of February. It is not, however, until they resort to their 

 breeding-places that they attract much notice, and then they 

 are all day long to be seen, often in great numbers, dispersed 

 over the surrounding seas to the distance of fifty or more 

 miles. Their breeding-stations are not numerous, however, 

 those mentioned by observers being, on the w^est side of 

 Britain, Lundy Island, on the coast of Devonshire; Ailsa 

 Craig, off" Ayrshire ; St. Kilda, to the Avest of the Outer 

 Hebrides ; Suliskerry, between the Butt of the Lewis and 

 the Orkneys ; and on the east coast of Scotland the Bass 

 Rock, in the Firth of Forth. It is in the latter station that 

 I have made most of my observations on this bird. 



The Bass is an abrupt rock, having a basis of about a mile 

 in circumference, and of an oblong form. The cliffs are per- 

 pendicular in some places, overhanging in others, and every- 

 where precipitous, excepting at the narrow extremity next 

 the land, where, sloping less abruptly, they form at the basis 

 a low projection, on which is the only landing-j)lace. Above 

 this are the ruins of the fortifications and houses, the Bass 

 having formerly been used as a state prison. The rocks are 

 in some places apparently two hundred feet in height, and 

 the summit, towards Avhich the surface rises in an irregular 

 manner, is probably a hundred and fifty feet higher. In as 

 far as I have observed, the whole mass is of a uniform struc- 



