PLATE I 

 SOLAN GOOSE. Sula Bassana 



June 7///, 1895. This Plate was taken far down the East Cliff on the Bass 

 Rock. I climbed right down, with my camera on my back, having left my 

 shoes and stockings on the top, as the rocks were so slippery that nails were 

 no use at all, and might have caused a dangerous slip. I succeeded in getting 

 right down among the birds, and got two very good plates of them. 



Most of the nests seemed to be repaired each year, as some of them were 

 enormous structures of seaweed, evidently years old. I would recommend 

 the adventurous climber never to trust to a foothold in a nest, as I had a 

 narrow escape on this occasion owing to doing that. The nest happened to be 

 built on a slightly sloping piece of rock, and being soaked with wet and 

 slippery with decaying fish, simply shot out into space the instant that my 

 foot rested on it; fortunately I had a good grip of the rock above, else I 

 had then and there ended my career, as there was a fall of two hundred feet 

 on to sharp, jagged rocks below. 



I climbed to a most curious place far down the face of the cliff, a huge 

 vertical cranny, from which I looked down on to a ledge covered with Gannets 

 and a great many Guillemots sitting on their single eggs. 



The note of the Gannet is a curious sound, midway between a croak and 

 a laugh, and very harsh and guttural. They will open their bills and utter 

 the most blood-curdling noises if approached, and woe betide any unfortunate 

 finger that gets nipped by their powerful bills. I remember our gamekeeper 

 bringing home one which had been left behind by a storm on the hills in 

 South Perthshire. It was put into an empty poultry-pen for the night, and 

 going rather too close to it on my visit next morning, I received a painful 

 reminder from its powerful bill. 



