464 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



press onwards and cover their allotted space. Unlike the same 

 waters at the heads between Belhaven and the town of Dunbar, 

 the breakers, instead of dashing themselves on precipitous battle- 

 ments of rock, come landwards in a long curling line of foarn, 

 inexpressibly fine when seen in clear sunlight against the blue 

 background, and conveying the same idea of power as when 



" On iron coast in angry waves 

 You seem to hear them climb and fall 

 And roar, rock thwarted." 



I have at various times had Solan Geese in my keeping as pets, but 

 I am sorry I cannot say much in their favour. The last lot I had 

 about half-a-dozen behaved very badly. They kept up an 

 incessant clamour for fish, quantities of which they ravenously, 

 and I may say, thanklessly devoured; for I no sooner presented 

 myself within the enclosure where they were confined than I was 

 furiously met by the whole gang, launching their wedge-shaped 

 bills wherever they could effectively strike a blow, and uttering 

 all the while the most discordant cries it was possible for birds to 

 give vent to. With such experience, it would be folly to recom- 

 mend the Gannet as a proper subject for the Aviary: it does 

 not requite one for his trouble; and, besides, it is not the most 

 gentle occupation of a morning to be visiting one's pets armed with 

 a cudgel. 



Though there are now, as has been already said, but five 

 breeding stations for the Gannet in Scotland, it appears from the 

 writings of old travellers in the Hebrides that colonies existed in 

 various other places within the circle of the inner islands. Dean 

 Munro, who visited nearly the whole of the islands between 1540 

 and 1549, and has left a very quaint account of what he saw, says, 

 in his description of Bum, "Many Solane Geese are in this isle ;" 

 and again in speaking of Eigg he proceeds : " North from Elian 

 Muchd be foure myles, lyes ane iyle called iyle of Egga, foure myle 

 lange and twa myle braid, guid maine land with a Paroch Kirk in 

 it and maney Solane Geese/' though one cannot see exactly how 

 the two things should in this curt way be associated. J. Moni- 

 pennie, who wrote in 1597, thus refers to Rum and its productions: 

 " Then Ruma sixteene miles in length and sixe in bredth, rising 

 high in strait hilles full of woods and scrogges, and for that cause 

 it is inhabited in very fewe places. The sea fowles laie their egges 

 heere and there on the ground thereof. In the middest of the 



