THE BASS ROCK. 265 



sea-weed for building their nests. They were formed 

 entirely of this material, as we ascertained from examining 

 the habitations of the two colonies which have been obliged 

 to nidify on the top of the rock, all the shelves and ledges 

 on the face being forestalled. They were so tame at these 

 two places as often to refuse to move until kicked off the 

 nest. They then stood chattering with open bill, and if 

 you attempted to touch them would inflict a severe bite. 

 Their threatening attitudes were ludicrously pompous. 



One year the whole west side of the rock was depopu- 

 lated, from fishermen and others having shot them, when 

 they wandered up the firth in August, after an unusually 

 long-continued sht>al of herrings. The manner of the 

 soland's attack upon these shoals is very curious. From a 

 height of fifty or sixty feet, he conies down into the deep 

 head foremost, with the solidity of a stone. I have watched 

 a dozen follow each other in regular succession keeping 

 as true time as the ticking of a clock. When they emerge, 

 they don't repeat the operation for some time, and fly out 

 of the water with a lazy lagging flap. 



Gentlemen often practise rifle-shooting at the geese. 

 The site of some of their exploits was pointed out. One 

 inviting snip of rock juts out upon a line with the walls of 

 the fortress, where the riflemen take their station. They 

 have seldom long to wait ere a gannet settles upon this 

 point. It was called " Baird's shot," from some steady- 

 handed Baird having frequently perforated his goose. 

 Upon looking steadily at the distance, I could not reckon 

 it more than seventy or eighty yards. Taking everything 



