GANNET OR SOLAN GOOSE. 463 



breeding place on the eastern coast." Early in February several 

 thousands at a time have been observed off the village of Ballan- 

 trae, in Ayrshire, attacking shoals of fish with extraordinary 

 voracity as if they had for some months been on short allowance. 

 I have seen a like assemblage, though in the summer months, in 

 Belhaven Bay, near Dunbar, and also at the Tyne estuary, where 

 their rapid movements form a sight of great interest.* With 

 the exception of the Caon Sands on the north-west side of the 

 island of Benbecula, in the Outer Hebrides, I do not know a 

 finer expanse on the entire coast line of Scotland than that ex- 

 tending for some miles between the Tyninghame Woods and the 

 village of Belhaven. In the strong heat of summer which is there 

 tempered by the easterly ham setting in about mid-day, one may 

 sit for hours in pure delight while he watches the airy figures of 

 the Gannets and Terns sweeping athwart the soft azure, - 



" Blue the soft heavens, and blue the far ocean, 

 Gently their shores the hoarse waters sweep, 

 Hushed the dark forest, no quickening motion 

 Save in the breast of the tremulous deep. 

 Here on the pinnacle stand I and treasure 

 The musical notes of the deep booming sea, 

 As they strike on the air with unvarying measure, 

 And murmur their drowsy but sweet melody." 



' Netherton,' by C. Gulland, Jun. 



After the breaking up of a winter storm when the clear bracing 

 air becomes enjoyable with the accompaniment of bright sunshine, 

 one cannot but stand in admiration of the breakers which come 

 rolling in sparkling white masses into the bay from the blue water 

 outside. It is not easy to do justice to the scene through any mere 

 description. The sands which stretch some miles from east to 

 west, and seawards more than a mile when the tide is out, present 

 a vast yellow expanse on which the waves, like a great white wall, 



* In speaking of the destruction among fish, committed by these birds during 

 their residence on our coasts, a writer in the ' Quarterly Review ' makes the 

 following calculation : " The Solan Goose can swallow and digest, at least, six 

 full sized herrings per day. It has been calculated that in the island of St. Kilda, 

 assuming it to be inhabited by 200,000 of these birds, feeding for seven months 

 in the year, and with an allowance of five herrings each per day, the number of 

 fish for the summer subsistence of a single species of birds cannot be under 

 214,000,000. Compared with the enormous consumption of fish by birds, and 

 by each other, the draughts made upon the population of the sea by man, with 

 all his ingenious fishing devices, seem to dwindle into absolute insignificance." 



