LITTLE SKELLIG 61 



The Little Skellig. 



Its Early History. — There are, and possibly have 

 been for centuries, two nurseries of the Gannet in 

 Ireland, and, as far as we know, two only — the Little 

 Skellig and the Bull, both of them island rocks, 

 and both on the south-west coast.* Much the larger 

 of the two, and, as far as we have any cognisance, 

 the older, is the Skellig, which stands out lofty and jagged 



* The learned Sylvester Giraldus, who wrote a History of Ireland in the 

 Xlllth Century, speaks therein of various birds, and amongst them of a 

 white Goose, called a " Gante." Whether he had the real Gannet in his 

 mind is very doubtful, especially as we know that " Gante " was used in 

 " Rolls of Normandy " of the Xlllth Century for a Goose. Mr. Montague 

 James informed the late Professor Newton that " Ganta," judging from 

 Ducange, meant simjsly Wild Geese, anseres Silvester or aiicae silveater, and 

 not Gannets. Giraldus' words are : — " Aticse minores albse qui et Gantes 

 dicuntur et gregatim in multitudine magna, et garrula venire solent, in 

 hos terrarum fines rarius advenivmt, et tunc valde rarae " (" Tojj. Hib.," 

 I., Cap. XXIII., edited by J. F. Dimock). Translation. — The smaller 

 white Geese, which are also called Gantes, and which are wont to come 

 by flocks in a great and noisy multitude into these remote parts of the 

 earth, appear but seldom, and indeed very few at a time." At first 

 sight one would not think the word " Gantes " to mean here Wild 

 Geese, e.g., Anser alhijrons or A. segetum, because in the next paragraph 

 Giraldus makes mention of these as the larger Geese, commonly called 

 Brisice, or GrisicB, i.e.. Grey Geese ; yet it must be admitted the description 

 is not applicable to the Gannet, and in all probability was not intended 

 for it. 



Giraldus has many other allusions to Irish birds in his writings, as well 

 as to Welsh ones, but a recent commentator on Irish zoology sets him down 

 as a credulous man (Harting, " Essays on Sport and N. H.," p. 297), whose 

 natural history is not to be relied on. 



