Dr. R. 0. Cunningham on the Solan Goose. 13 



Having thus passed in review the various notices of the Solan 

 Goose which are to be met with in the works of the more cele- 

 brated of the earlier authors, we may now proceed to offer some 

 observations on our present knowledge of its natural history. 

 Tile Gannct, or Solan Goose, is the Anser Bassanus or Scoticus of 

 Gesner, Aldrovaudus, Jouston, Willughby, and the greater 

 number of the older authors ; the Sula Hoieri of Clusius, Wil- 

 lughby and Ray; Pelccanus Bassanus of Linnaeus, Gmelin, 

 Latham, &c. ; the Sula Bassana of Brisson and modern authors 

 in general; the Sula alba of Meyer, Temminck, and Fleming ; 

 the Weisser Tolpel of Mayer ; the Bassanische Pelikan of Bech- 

 stein ; and the Fou blanc and Fou de Bassan of French authors. 

 Its popular names are as follows : in English it is termed 

 Gannet and Soland Goose ; in Welsh, Gan ; in Gaelic, Sulair and 

 Guga ; in Norse, Sula and Hafsula; in Greenland, Konksuk ; in 

 German, Solendgans and Schottengans ; in Dutch, Jaen van 

 Gent; and in French, le Fou. 



The name Gaunet is intimately connected with our modern 

 English Gander, both words being modifications of the ancient 

 British "gan" or "gans," which is the same word with the modern 

 German "Gans,'^ which in its turn corresponds with the old High 

 German ''Kans," the Greek x^)^> ^^^ Latin anser, and the Sanskrit 

 "hansa"*, all of which possess the same signification, viz. a Goose. 

 The origin of the names Solan or Soland, Sulan, Sula, and Haf- 

 sula, which are evidently all closely related, is not so obvious. 

 Martin informs us that " some imagine that the word Solan comes 

 from the Irish Souler, corrupted and adapted to the Scottish 

 language, qui oculis irretortis e longinquo respiciat prcedam." The 

 earlier writers in general derive the word from the Latin solea 

 in consequence of the bird's supposed habit of hatching its egg 

 with its foot ; and in a note intercalated into Ray's description 



* [This word, though applied to a different bird and in a slightly dif- 

 ferent form, has probably survived to our own time, " Hanser " or 

 " Hernser " (with the still further corruption, as in the old proverb, of 

 " Handsaw ") is now-a-days in many places the common name for Ardea 

 cinerea, and seems as if it could be hardly anything else than the Sanskrit 

 " hansa." If so, " Heronshaw," abbreviated to " Heron " and " Hern," 

 is naturally from the same root. — Ed.] 



