200 THE GANNET 



the whole island appears of a brilliant white colour to those 

 who approach it — all the cliffs look as if they consisted of 

 the whitest chalk ; the true colour of the rock, however, 

 is dusky and black. It is a friable white crust that is spread 

 over all, which gives the island its whiteness and splendour, 

 a crust having the same consistency, colour, and nature as 

 an eggshell, which plasters everything with a hard, though 

 friable and testaceous kind of covering. The lower part 

 of the rock, laved by the ebbing and flowing tide, preserves 

 its native colour, and clearly shows that the whiteness of 

 the superior parts is due to the liquid excrements of the 



birds, Among the many different kinds of 



birds which seek the Bass island for the sake of laying 

 and incubating their eggs, and which have such variety 

 of nests, one bird was pointed out to me* which lays but 

 one egg, and this it places upon the point of a rock, 

 with nothing like a nest or bed beneath it, yet so firmly 

 that the mother can go and return without injury to it ; 

 but if anyone move it from its place, by no art can it be 

 fixed or balanced again ; left at liberty it straightway rolls 

 off and falls into the sea. The place as I have said is crusted 



* Mr. Bonar thinks this was the Guillemot, and that the fable about its 

 adhering capacity has reference to the manner in which its pyriform egg 

 often rolls about on a ledge, and yet almost in a circle so that it does not 

 fall, but Blaeii who tells the same story attributes it to the Gannet 

 (p. 213). 



