Dr. R. 0. Cunningham on the Solan Goose. 5 



nigra erat : corporis ambitus viginti quatuor uncias, hoc est, 

 binos pedes Romanos explebat, alse plus quh,m pedem longse, 

 caudse vero longiores pennse septem uuciarum longitudineni 

 non superabant; crura satis tenuia & infirma habcbat, eaque 

 binis unciis non longiora, & nigra prorsus coloris, ut etiam pedes, 

 qui valde lati, quatuor digitis constantes, quorum exterior & 

 illi proximus (qui longissimi) tribus articulationibus coustabant, 

 tertius duabus, minimus una, singuli parvo ungue prsediti prsctcr 

 secundum, cujus unguis paullo latior, & altcro latere serratus, 

 omnes autem nigra membrana simul counexi: longiores porro 

 & remiges alarum pennse totre nigrae, ut etiam tres illse quae in 

 Cauda inferiores et longiores, mediumque caudse locum occu- 

 pantes*: reliquum corpus albae pennse tegebant ; quse tamen 

 in dorso, non nihil subflavescebant, tamquam luto aut pulvere 

 conspersse fuisseut." 



Forty-five years later we find a notice of the Gannet in Jon- 

 ston's ' Historia Naturalis de Avibus' (p. 94). It contains but 

 little additional information regarding it, beyond the fact that 

 the flesh is hard and dry, as the author can state from personal 

 experience of it derived in the course of a visit to Scotland in 

 1623 ; but it is accompanied by a most remarkable figure, bear- 

 ing the title of " Schotisch Gans " and representing a singu- 

 larly hideous bird, with huge nostrils and tarsi armed with 

 formidable spursf- 



In the well-known ' Exercitationes de Generatione' of the cele- 

 brated William Harvey, which was published in 1651, there is a 

 very interesting passage (p. 30), descriptive of the nidification of 

 the Gannet on the Bass Rock. We are there informed that the 

 surface of the island in the months of May and June is almost 

 entirely covered with nests, eggs, and young birds, so as to 

 render it almost impossible to avoid trampling on them ; that 

 such is the density of the flight of the old birds in the air, that 

 like a cloud they darken the sun and the sky ; and that the 



* This statement, as to the occurrence of black feathers m the tail is 

 rather curious, reminding one of the South African Snla mclanura. It is 

 probably an indication of youth. 



f [This is a reduced copy from Aldrovandi's figiu-e, Ornith. &c., torn. i. 

 p. 163.— Ed.] 



