Dr. R. 0. Cunningham on the Solan Goose. 11 



that " the natives make a pudding of the fat of this fowl in the 

 stomach of it, and boil it in their water-gruel which they call 

 Brochan ; they drink it likewise for removing the cough : it is 

 by daily experience found to be an excellent vulnerary." 



In O'Flaherty's ' West or H-Iar Connaught/ written in 

 1684, and published by the Irish Archaeological Society in 1846, 

 there occurs (p. 12) the following notice of the bird: — " Here 

 the ganet soares high in the sky to espy his prey in the sea 

 under him, at which he casts himself headlong, and swallows up 

 whole herrings in a morsell. This bird flys through the ships' 

 sailes piercing them with his beak.'' 



An account of the Gannet is given by Sir Robert Sibbald in 

 his ' History, ancient and modern, of the Sheriffdoms of Fife 

 and Kinross, with the description of both, and of the Firths of 

 Forth and Tay, and the Islands in them'*, which was published 

 at Edinburgh in 1710; but as it contains no information which 

 does not occur in the w orks of his predecessors, it is unnecessary 

 to say more with regard to it. Albin describes the bird in the 

 first volume of his * Natural History of Birds,' which made its ap- 

 pearance in 1738. He remarks correctly that it "has no Nos- 

 trils, but in their stead a Furrow extended on each Side through 

 the whole Length of the Bill." The illustration which accom- 

 panies his description is remarkable, for the bird is represented 

 as having five toes ! 



The next account of the Solan Goose deserving of notice occurs 

 in Bishop Pontoppidan's 'Natural History of Norway,' which was 

 published in 1752, and translated into English three years sub- 

 sequently. "The Hav Sule," the worthy bishop informs us, 

 " is a large Sea-bird which somewhat resembles a Goose : the head 

 and neck are rather like those of a Stork, excepting that the bill 

 is shorter and thicker, and is yellowish; the legs are longf; 

 a-cross the back and wings the colour is a light blue ; the breast 

 and long neck are white ; towards the head it is green mix'd 

 with black, and on the top there is a red comb : the tail and 

 wings are both distinguished by some white feathers at the ends, 



* Part II. chapter II. p. 47. 



t [Tlie translation is here very Ljose. In the original the sentence 

 stands more correctly, being " The legs are as in a Skarf," i. e. Phala- 

 croconu, — Ed.] 



