Dr. 11. 0. Cunningham on the Solan Goose. 21 



owe our information principally to xVudubon and Dr. Bryant, the 

 latter of whom, in a paper in the ' Proceedings of the Boston 

 Society of Natural History ' (viii. p. 65), has given an excellent ac- 

 count of the localities in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He says, "The 

 northerly or highest half of the summit of Gannet Rock, and all 

 the ledges on its sides of sufficient width, the whole upper part of 

 the pillar-like portion of the Little Bird, and the greater part of 

 the remaining portion of this rock, were covered with the nests 

 of the Gannet at the time of my visit. On the ledges the nests 

 were arranged in single lines, nearly or quite touching one an- 

 other ; on the summit, at regular distances one from the other 

 of about three feet. Those on the ledges were built entirely of 

 seaweed and other floating substances; on the summit of the 

 rock they were raised on cones, formed of earth or small stones, 

 about ten inches in height and eighteen in diameter when first 

 constructed, presenting, at a short distance, the appearance of a 

 well-hilled potato-field. I saw no nests built of zostera, or 

 grass, or sods ; the materials were almost entirely fuci, though 

 anything available was probably used ; in one case the whole 

 nest was composed of straw, and in another, the greater part of 

 manila rope-yarn. The nests on the summit of the Great Bird 

 were never scattered, but ended abruptly in as regular a line as 

 a military encampment. Through the midst of the nests were 

 several open spaces, like lanes, made quite smooth by the con- 

 tinued trampling of the birds, which seemed to be used for 

 play-grounds ; these generally extended to the brink of the pre- 

 cipice, and reminded me very much of the sliding-places of 

 otters. 



" The birds were principally feeding on herring, but also on 

 capelin filled with spawn, some fine-looking mackerel, a few 

 squids, and, in one instance, a codfish weighing at least two 

 pou.nds. The surface was swarming with a species of staphy- 

 linus, that subsisted on the fish dropped by the birds. Occa- 

 sionally a nest could be seen in which the single egg had not 

 been deposited, and perhaps one, in two or three hundred, wdth 

 a newly laid one ; on all the I'est the Gannets were already sit- 

 ting, and though none of the eggs were as yet hatched, many 

 of them contained fully formed chicks. On being approached 



