152 THE GANNET 



with them their brith [boat] full of dray [i.e., dried] wild 

 foulis, with wyld foulis fedders." 



This island of Sulisgeir, which is only half a mile in length, 

 has been also known by the names of North Barra and 

 Suliskerry, but Mr. Harvie-Brown tells me that the latter 

 designation is more fitly applied to the true Sule-Skerry 

 (" Stack and Skerry "), lying much nearer to the Orkneys, 

 and to be next described. So that there has been a certain 

 amount of confusion which Mr. Harvie-Brown, who has 

 visited all these islands, has been instrumental in clearing 

 up. We only possess two accounts of the ornithology of 

 Sulisgeir, firstly that by Mr. John Swinburne,* and secondly 

 that by Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown, t but these authors are 

 excellent naturalists and tell a great deal which is of value 

 about this island rock. 



Mr. John Swinburne was on Sulisgeir in June, 1883, 

 and Mr. Harvie-Brown was there in June, 1887 ; the latter 

 states that it is chiefly the southern and eastern faces of 

 the island which are tenanted by Gannets, which there 

 occupy the rocks and ledges by thousands. " Nearer the 

 cliff," says Mr. Harvie-Brown, whose visit was made shortly 

 after a wholesale killing by the men of Ness had taken 

 place, " and between the looser fragments and the edge, 



* Royal Physical Soc. Edinburgh, VIII., p. 51 (1883-5). 



t "A Vertebrate Fauna of the Outer Hebrides," 1888, p. Hi. 



