382 Birds. 



colour of the plumage is a dingy white, with a greyish 

 tinge. Surrounding each eye there is a naked skin of a 

 fine blue colour ; from the corner of the mouth a narrow 

 slip of naked black skin extends to the hind part of the 

 head ; and beneath the chin there is a pouch capable of 

 containing five or six herrings. The neck is long ; the 

 body flat, and very full of feathers. On the crown of 

 the head, and the back part of the neck, is a small buff- 

 coloured space. The quill-feathers, and some other parts 

 of the wings, are black ; as are also the legs, except a fine 

 pea-green stripe in front. The tail is wedge-shaped, and 

 consists of twelve sharp-pointed feathers. 



These birds chiefly resort to those uninhabited islands 

 where man seldom comes to disturb them. The islands 

 to the north, Ailsa Craig, on the west coast of Scotland, 

 the Skelig Islands, off the coasts of Kerry in Ireland, and 

 those that lie in the North Sea off Norway, abound with 

 them. But it is on the Bass Rock, in the Frith of Forth, 

 that they are seen in the greatest abundance. " There is 

 a small island," says the celebrated Harvey, " called the 

 Bass, not more than a mile in circumference ; the surface 

 is almost wholly covered during the months of May and 

 June with the nests of the Solan Geese, their eggs, and 

 their young. It is scarcely possible to walk without 

 treading on them : the flocks of birds upon the wing are 

 so numerous as to darken the air like a cloud ; and their 

 noise is suoh, that one cannot without difficulty be heard 

 by the person next to him. When one looks down upon 

 the sea from the precipice, its whole surface seems covered, 

 with infinite numbers of birds of different kinds, swim- 

 ming and pursuing their prey. If, in sailing round the 

 island, one surveys its hanging cliffs, in every crag or 

 fissure of the broken rocks may be seen innumerable 

 birds., of various sorts and sizes, more than the stars of 

 heaven when viewed in a serene night. If they are 

 viewed at a distance, either receding or in their ap- 

 proach to the island, they seem like one vast swarm of 

 bees." 



