AILSA CRAIG 97 



be seen, which have been blown round to the east side of 

 the Craig, having been in some cases carried high over its 

 grass slopes and dropped somewhere on the thirty acres of 

 level ground by the lighthouse. 



I now settle myself in a safe position to watch the 

 Gannets at leisure, with a guardian at hand in Mr. Thomson 

 to catch hold of in case of giddiness. kSome of them 

 are clearly returning from distant fishing, or seaweed 

 hunting ; others are going out to sea with a settled purpose 

 for something ; others again are seeking apparently for their 

 rightful nests, which they may well have a difficulty in 

 recognising among so many ; while still others are merely 

 playing with the wind, wafted hither and thither as its 

 slightest movement takes them. Backwards and forwards 

 the Gannets circle ; to attempt to follow their mazy flight 

 with eye or pencil is a futile task, but it is a never-to-be- 

 forgotten scene, one which Mr. Walker well describes, 

 and which impressed itself much on both me and my com- 

 panions. Probably Gannets are often on the wing in winter 

 time for forty or fifty hours at a stretch, without alighting 

 to rest on the water, but less in the summer. As they pass 

 and re-pass we have an opportunity of remarking that the 

 toes are close folded, but the legs stretched out evidently 

 to the full, though sometimes quite hidden in the plumage. 

 It was easy to see this when now and then one soared 



