36 THE GANNET. 



The Gannet leaves the Bass in autumn, and does not 

 return until spring. 1 



Its flight is very powerful and long sustained, and it 

 sometimes travels immense distances to feed. It is inter- 

 esting to watch a party of Gannets fishing, for the birds 

 descend headlong from various heights in the air, and 

 plunge into the sea with such force as to leave the sur- 

 face covered with foam at the spots where they disappear 

 under the water. In a few moments they emerge, and, 

 after sitting for some seconds on the water, mount on the 

 wing again and renew their search. Their skill in captur- 

 ing fish had been noticed by Holland, for he thus alludes to 

 it in his Houlat : 



And als in the advent, 

 The Soland Stewart was sent ; 

 For he could fra the firmament 

 Fang 2 the fische deid. 



The salmon-fishers on the coast say that when Gannets are 

 observed frequently plunging into the sea for fish near the 

 shore, a good take may be expected in the nets. 



Although at the present day the Solan Goose is by no 

 means reckoned a dainty dish for the table, yet it appears 

 to have been considered so by Berwickshire lairds long 

 ago, for in The Men of the Merse we find Lord Crossrig 

 inviting George Home of Kimmerghame " to a Solan Goose " 

 in March 1699. 3 It was esteemed as an article of food in 

 the Middle Ages. 4 



The grease of this bird appears to have been very much 

 valued in the olden times, for in the General Eegister House, 



1 It returns to the Bass early in February, and lingers there till October, 

 although most of the birds leave the rock when the young are taken in August. 

 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 17. 



2 Capture. Jamieson, Scot. Diet. 



3 The Men of the Merse, by Archibald Campbell-Swinton Esq. of Kimmer- 

 ghame, 1858, p. 61. 



4 Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. i., 1473-98, Preface, ccv. 



