AILSA CRAIG 87 



be heard crying them, first giving three rings of the bell, and 

 then calling out aloud : " Ailsa cocks, cleaned, and ready for 

 the pot, 2d. each. Peaties and Strainies, Id. each, cleaned." 

 The " cocks " I learn from Mr. Thomson were Guillemots. 

 and the " Peaties " and " Strainies " Puffins and Razorbills.* 

 In 1905 I was at the Craig again, this time accom- 

 panied by Mr. A. Parker and Mr. Henry Gurney, when we 

 spent four busy summer days on the island, sleeping at the 

 lighthouse and watching the birds, having, ideal weather for 

 exploring the rock from June 27th to the 30th. What made 

 this second visit the more interesting was that it was at 

 a date almost identical with the visit of Thomas Pennant, 

 the author of " The British Zoology," who, however, has 

 disappointingly little to tell us (" Tour in Scotland," 11. , 

 p. 215) about the Gannets or any other birds. Both 

 Mr. Parker and Mr. Gurney had brought cameras with 

 them, and took photographs of the Craig for me, but I 

 think a view by Mr. Charles Kirk, of Glasgow, gives, on the 



* There was also a trade in feathers, and Mr. Paterson tells me there is a 

 letter of Robert Burns, the poet, which proves that the feathers, of which 

 he asks a friend for a few stone, had a market value as far back as 1788. 

 But these also were extremely cheap, never rising above 16s. a stone, 

 although at the Bass they made a little more. They told us on the 

 Craig that the feathers of about 384 Puffins went to a stone, and that it 

 took three stone of feathers to make a bed — that means the lives of 1,152 

 Puffins ! According to the late Mr. E. T. Booth the feathers of nearly 100 

 Gannets are required to weigh a stone, so each Gannet produces almost as 

 many feathers as four Puffins. In St. Kilda 80 young Gannets go to a 

 barrel (Mackenzie). 



