APPENDIX D. 



HISTORIC AND PRE -HISTORIC REMAINS OF GANNETS. 



Remains of Gamiets cotemporary with the Picts. — In 1901-2 

 the cranium and coracoid bone of a Gannet were dug \x^ with 

 many other remains outside a Pict's dwelhng in Orkney, and 

 subsequently identified by Mr. N. F. Ticehurst (" British Birds " 

 Magazine, 1907-8, p. 309). The date approximately assigned 

 to them is the ninth century. In 1864 Gannet remains Avere 

 met with in a kitchenmidden at Keiss in Caithness {see " Pi-e- 

 historic Remains of Caithness," by Samuel Laing, 1866). They 

 were considered to be comparatively recent, and to belong to 

 the late period of the " Broch " or Pict habitation near which 

 they were found, i.e., approximately the ninth century. 



Gannet bones, subsequently identified as such by Professor 

 Newton, were also obtained on the north coast of Antrim, 

 Ireland, some fifty miles only from Ailsa Craig (" The Irish 

 Naturalist," 1899, p. 5). As was the case in Orkney and 

 Caithness, they were associated with the remains of Alca 

 impennis, and are not likely to be of any antiquity : men of 

 the eighth or ninth century may have brought them in boats 

 from Ailsa Craig for food. 



Remains of Ganncts from the Stone Aye. — To the later Stone 

 Age, or perhaps to what is accepted as the Bronze Age, 

 belong the only remains of Gannets which uji to the present 

 have been identified in England. These were discovered in an 



