412 SULA BASS ANA. 



feeds the young with a kind of fish soup prepared in its gullet 

 and stomach, and which it introduces drop by drop, as it were, 

 into its throat. But when its nursling is pretty well grown, 

 it places its bill within its mouth, and disgorges the fish 

 either entire or in fragments. They never carry fish to the 

 rock in their bills. The smallest number of young killed in 

 a year is a thousand, the greatest two thousand ; but in 

 general the number is fifteen or sixteen hundred. After 

 being plucked they are sold at from ninepence to a shilling 

 each. The price of a young bird for stuffing is two shillings, 

 of an old bird five, of an egg one. For the information con- 

 tained in this paragraph I am indebted to the keeper or 

 farmer of the rock, of whom, however, I did not think of 

 asking to whom the birds were sold. 



At the period of my second visit, with Mr. Audubon, on 

 the 19th of August 1835, the nests in most places had almost 

 entirely disappeared ; for it is only during incubation that the 

 birds keep them in constant repair. The young were in 

 various stages, a few quite small and covered all over with 

 white down, the greater number partially fledged, with the 

 down remaining on the head and neck, and some nearly ready 

 to fly, and having merely a few tufts of doAvn on the hind- 

 neck. The young lay flat, either on the remnants of their 

 nest, or on the bare rock or ground. They are very patient 

 and uncomplaining ; in fact, none uttered a single ciy while 

 we were inspecting them. I observed an old bird, with its 

 own young one beside it, squeeze the neck of another young- 

 ling with considerable force. The poor bird bore the perse- 

 cution with perfect resignation, and merely cowed under the 

 bill of the tyrant. The young of the latter also attacked its 

 neighbour, but was instantly checked, on which it meekly 

 desisted. One of the men informed me that last year there 

 were fourteen nests, each with two eggs. In such cases one 

 of the young is said to be much smaller than the other. 



Having visited one of the most celebrated of the breeding- 

 places of the Gannets, let us now observe their habits at a 

 distance from their retreat. In the Outer Hebrides they are 

 to be seen, soon after sunrise, coming in strings of from three 

 or four to twenty or so, from the Atlantic, and wending their 



