154 THE GANNET 



use of. It will be observed that nearly all the Gannets which 

 are on their nests are facing the same way, and that the 

 uncovered nests are very substantial, and of considerable 

 diameter. 



Number of Gannets on Sidiscjeir. — As regards its Gannet 

 population Mr. Harvie-Brown was of opinion that when he 

 was there in 1887, Sulisgeir surpassed both the Bass Rock 

 and Ailsa Craig in numbers [i.e., lii.). Mr. Harvie-Brown 

 tells us that in 1884 two boats' crews from Ness took 800, 

 1,000 and 1,000 young Gannets in three consecutive days 

 = 2,800 in all, and Mr. Swinburne says as many as 3,000 have 

 been taken in a single season {i.e., p. 65). This number seems 

 to have been maintained, and as recently as 1898 the number 

 taken according to the harbour-master of Ness, Mr. John 

 Macleod, was still about 2,500. This is at least 700 more 

 young Gannets than have ever been taken on the Bass Rock, 

 but in making a comparison it must be said that the nests 

 on Sulisgeir are more accessible — judging from the accounts 

 and Mr. Norrie's photographs — than on the Bass. Now, 

 2,800 young Gannets would have had 5,600 parents, and if 

 we allow 2,400 more for Gannets with inaccessible nests, 

 which Professor Newton, who had these figures before him, 

 thought was ample, it gives a Gannet settlement of 8,000. 

 This is putting it higher than the Bass Rock, or Ailsa Craig, 

 and at that I think I am justified in reckoning it. 



