THE BIRDS OF IONA AND MULL. 263 



only water bird we could not eat. It has a strong, rank smell peculiar to 

 itself, and to the fulmar, storm petrel, and shearwater, which they never 

 lose, even after the skin has been stuffed some years, and which clings 

 to any pocket, bag, or box which has contained them. Some years ago 

 a small crofter caught a solan goose near his cabin, which refused to 

 fly away, and it was cooked and eaten. Soon after the man and his 

 wife died, the servant girl was dangerously ill, and the cow, which had 

 licked out the pot, either died or became very ill. The bird was no 

 doubt poisoned. I once captured a young gannet in its first year's 

 plumage, which made no attempt to escape. On examination, one leg 

 was found swollen to three times its normal size, and full of dark, 

 extravasated blood. The islanders call the bird asan, while the main- 

 land name is ansa apparently a corruption and transposition of 

 anser ; but the natives of St Kilda (one of the gannet's homes) name 

 it suilear, from suil, the eye, in reference to its sharp sight. Its 

 Scottish breeding places are the Bass Rock, Ailsa Craig, St Kilda, and 

 Suliskeir (the gannet rock), thirty miles north of the Butt of Lewis. 1 

 The sulair is mentioned in the following St Kilda song, which I heard 

 sung by a young lady well acquainted with the island and its people. 

 She favoured me with this literal translation and its chorus, which, being 

 supposed to be in the bird language, is, of course, untranslatable : 

 "There are lofty mountains, and among the mountains, plains ; 

 There dwell as lovely women as in the plains of the valleys, 

 With their dun-coloured plaids* and whitest of feet, 

 And if they obtain their wish, it is the birds they seek. 3 

 And the famous men of my love, who climb the rude ascent 

 And wound the bird with their weapon, beyond the reach of lead, 

 And merrily descend the cliff to kill the sulair, 

 Great is the fame that surrounds you. 

 Chorus of birds Ho-ro-iag o-wak o-iag-o, 



Iri-iri-iag o-wak oro. Ho-ro-iag o-wak o-iag-o," &c. 



1 Suliskeir, near 1ST. Rona, is the locality meant in the text, and is forty-one 

 miles from Butt of Lewis. Another locality in addition to the above, is Stack, 

 of the group "Stack and Skerry," also called Suliskerry, which may be held as 

 belonging to the Orkney Islands, and perhaps is the breeding-place of the gannet, 

 which is least often landed upon. As we have ourselves observed, this immunity 

 from spoliation is most remarkably evidenced by the unusually large proportion 

 there of immature birds. ED. 



2 St Kilda sheep are brown, and the cloth is made of their undyed wool. 

 8 The puffin is caught in snares, which is considered the work of woman, 

 while the men are engaged in the more arduous pursuit of the solan goose. 



