SOLAN GOOSE. 245 



Devon, and the Skelig Isles, are less known English 

 and Irish stations. 



It is on the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, 

 only that we have seen this bird assembled to breed ; 

 and altogether, it is perhaps one of the most in- 

 teresting sights that the ornithologist can be placed 

 before, whether he surveys the crowd nestling upon 

 their eggs, greeting their mates on their arrival from 

 the sea, or squabbling, if one happens to intrude 

 a little too near another ; or to sit aside and view 

 the troops of birds in adult and changing and first 

 year's plumage, pass and repass, surveying their 

 visitor, and sailing past him in a smooth, noiseless 

 flight, so near, that the eye and every feather is dis- 

 tinctly seen, the bird motionless, except a slight 

 inclination of the head when opposite. On the 

 Bass, the great proportion of the birds build on the 

 ledges of the precipitous face of the rock ; but a 

 considerable number also place their nests on the 

 summit, near the edge, where they can be walked 

 among ; there the birds are quite tame, allowing a 

 person to approach them, and will fight at the foot 

 when held out. On our last visit to this rock, we 

 had a small cocker in company, which, in such 

 situations, gave regular battle to the geese, though 

 commonly forced to retreat ; and had he not been 

 tied up, it is nearly certain that he would either 

 have lost his sight, or been tumbled over the rock, 

 by the strokes of the birds' wings. Several of the 

 breeding birds have black (or immature) feathers on 



