182 THE GANNET 



the Scots call gannets, of white colour, but mixed with 

 black, and in such multitudes that they could not be easily 

 estimated. From the feathers and fishes which these birds 

 carry on to the rock the commander of the fort is said to 

 be able to collect an annual sum amounting to 400 gold 



pieces The bird called the Gannet lays no more 



than one egg, and hatches it under its foot in a standing 

 position." 



This translation is taken from " Early travellers in 

 Scotland," 1891, by Hume Brown, who used a copy of the 

 State papers in the possession of Sheriff Mackay. This 

 seems to be the first time that the Anglo-Saxon name 

 of Gannet is applied to the occupants of the Bass, or Basth, 

 as Swave terms it, though the word had been employed 

 at a much earlier period in connection with Lundy 

 Island. Here also we first hear a money value given to the 

 Gannets' produce, a value which is next spoken to, though 

 no amount is named, by Bishop Leslie, in 1578. 



7. Dr. William Turner, author of the " Avium praecip- 

 uarum, quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, 

 brevis & succincta historia," * after describing the Bernicle, 

 writes thus of the Gannet : — 



TRANSLATION. 



" The second Goose, of which I promised I would speak, 



* Golonice [Cologne] 1544. 



