GANNET OR SOLAN GOOSE. 459 



out the Hebridean Sounds, extending even to the lochs of Skye, 

 and the still more distant shores of western Ross-shire. Again, 

 the coasts of Lewis, the North Minch, and the shores of Suther- 

 land and Caithness, are frequented by wandering Gannets from 

 Suleskeir, or North Barra, as it is sometimes called a small 

 island lying about ten miles west of Rona, the most north-westerly 

 land in Europe. This island of Suleskeir has been apparently 

 confused with another rock of a similar name (the Suliskerry of 

 British authors), as no reference has been made to it as a breeding 

 place of the Gannet in any of the numerous works on British 

 Ornithology. Mr Elwes (Ibis, 1869) states that though now 

 uninhabited, it is still visited annually by a boat from Ness, which 

 goes in September for the sake of the down and feathers of the 

 young Gannets, several thousands of which are usually killed. 

 There are therefore five different breeding stations for the Gannet 

 in Scotland, viz.: Ailsa Craig, St. Kilda, Suleskeir (marked in 

 most maps as North Barra), Stack of Suleskerry, about forty 

 miles west of Stromness in Orkney, and the Bass Rock in 

 the Firth of Forth. From these localities, as has been shewn, 

 the birds make long excursions in search of prey. The flight 

 performed by the St. Kilda Gannets indeed cannot be much 

 short of 200 miles in one day, without taking into account the 

 distance gone over while they are engaged in fishing. I have 

 observed them regularly returning across the Minch from the 

 shores of Skye, and passing through the Sound of Harris on their 

 way home about an hour before sunset ; and in the height of the 

 breeding season I have also seen Gannets from Suleskeir winging 

 their way back to their distant nursery as we passed Cape Wrath. 

 I am inclined to think that the poor birds sometimes become inert 

 through fatigue, and find themselves unable to continue their flight. 

 In August, 1870, when rounding the Mull of Cantyre about 

 10 P.M., I saw strings of solan geese, seven and eight at a time, 

 flying homewards in the direction of Ailsa Craig, and keeping close 

 together as if wearied. Next morning on going on deck about 

 four o'clock I observed numbers of these birds apparently asleep 

 on the water in the Sound of Jura : they were all floating help- 

 lessly with the tide, with their heads buried in their plumage. In 

 sailing northwards the same facts were observed, until after 

 rounding the point of Ardnamurchan, when it was found that the 

 Gannets all took a north-westerly course towards evening, from 



