214 THE GANNET 



until the following year. Many, however, are killed by 

 them [the people] in this manner ; seamen smooth and 

 whiten a plank and tie herrings to it, which plank they lash 

 to the stern of the boat. When the Geese see this and try 

 to seize [the herrings] with their bill, they dash their bill so 

 strongly into the plank that they are unable to pull it out, 

 but are caught, or rather catch themselves. Further if 

 these Geese fly so far from the sea that they can not see the 

 water, they can neither raise their bodies from the ground, 

 nor fly away." 



There is no evidence in Blaeu's work that his in- 

 formant who, as stated, was Robert Gordon of Stralloch, 

 had utilised the writings of Major, Boece, or Turner, or was 

 even acquainted with them, on the contrary that he had 

 not done so is distinctly indicated by the omission of the 

 story of a first fish rejected for a better one. Possibly his 

 allusion to the egg being covered by the Gannet's foot may 

 be from Gesner, but if so Gordon's informant has added on 

 his own account that the egg could not be replaced, a 

 specimen of his credulity, for the story is absolutely with- 

 out foundation. The people of the place seem to have told 

 the same story to Harvey in 1641, but such idle tales die 

 hard, and accordingly we find Morer repeats it in 1702, 

 and Defoe in 1724, while Brereton (1635), has furnished the 

 further information that when the eggs were sufficiently 



