Dr. R. 0. Cunningham on the Solon Goose. 15 



Holland and France, on the coasts of Spain and Portugal, in 

 the Mediterranean, and off Madeira. Further south than this 

 it seems to give place to the Sula melanwa'^. As in Europe, so 

 in America, the breeding-stations of the Gannct are hut few in 

 number, being restricted, in so far as I am aware, to an island 

 or islands in the Bay of Fundy, and to four rocks in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawi'ence, viz. the Great Bird or Gannet Rock, the Little or 

 North Bird Rock, Perce Rock near Gaspe, and Gannet Rock near 

 Mingan. It is of common occurrence on the shores of the 

 United States, and on the north-west coast of the continent; 

 and it is also met with in Greenland, though very rarely, ac- 

 cording to Fabricius, who states that it does not breed there. 



In endeavouring to give an outline of what is now known of 

 the habits of the Solan Goose, it will be convenient to treat of 

 it as separately noticed in its principal European and American 

 localities ; and I shall begin with some remarks on it as 

 seen at the earliest-known habitat of the bird, the Bass Rock, 

 where I have had an opportunity of personal observation. The 

 form and appearance of this celebrated island have been so often 

 and so elaborately described that a very few words will suffice to 

 say all that is necessary on the subject. It is about two miles 

 distant from the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, and three 

 from the venerable town of North Berwick, rises to the height 

 of 420 feet above the level of the sea, and is formed of a huge 

 mass of trap of a character intermediate between greenstone and 

 clinkstone. Its sides rise bold and perpendicular, and on the 

 east and west may be seen the opposite openings of a cavern 

 30 feet high and 170 feet long, which owes its existence to the 

 hollowing agency of the sea. Its " sloping acclivity,'^ to employ 

 the words of the late Hugh Miller, " consists of three great steps, 

 or terraces, with steep belts of precipice rising between ; " of 

 these " the lowest is occupied by the fortress, and furnishes, 

 where it sinks slopingly towards the sea on the south-east, the 

 two landing-places of the island.^' The middle, situated exactly 



* The poet Robert Browning fm-nishes us with rather a curious iUus- 

 tration of a mistake arising from ignorance of the habits and distribution 

 of the bird ; for in Part III. of ' Paracelsus ' we find Festus refen-ing to 

 his son " Aureole's glee when some stray Gannet builds amid the birch- 

 trees by the lake " of Geneva ! 



