the case, is a dark grey speckled with white ; the 

 back of the head and neck occasionally retaining 

 the down for some time after the other parts. 

 While in their infancy they are the most peevish 

 little wretches, snapping, quarrelling and fighting 

 with the utmost ferocity. Though the personal 

 injury that they inflict on one another is generally 

 small, their battles are not unfrequently attended 

 with fatal results, as one or perhaps both of the 

 combatants lose their balance, and falling from their 

 ' ledge are dashed to pieces on the rocks below. It 

 is a curious fact that not the slightest notice is ever 

 taken of a young one that drops on the water even 

 by its own parents, while an old bird that is shot 

 will immediately draw hundreds around it, where 

 they will remain flying in circles till the bird has 

 drifted a mile or two from the rock. 



The landlord of the inn at Canty Bay, who 

 also hires the Bass Rock, depends mainly on the 

 geese for paying his rent. The average take for 

 each season is now about eight or nine hundred 

 full-fledged young birds ; this however depends 

 greatly on the weather, as, should the rocks be wet 

 and slippery from continued rain, it renders the 

 work of going over to collect them both dangerous 

 and unpleasant, as the liquid guano lies in pools a 

 foot or two deep on some of the ledges and in the 

 cracks of the rocks. 



Ten or fifteen years ago as many as 1,500 or 

 2,000 were occasionally taken, but since that time 

 the birds have greatly decreased. 



After being plucked and cleaned some are sent 

 to the markets at Birmingham, Manchester and 

 other large provincial towns, and generally bring in 

 from eightpence to ten pence each ; others are 

 hawked about the country and sold for what they 

 will fetch, while a hundred or two are cooked at 

 Canty Bay and eagerly bought up by the farm 

 labourers of the district for a shilling each. 



The fat that comes out of the insides of the 



