142 THE MODE AND THE LOCH. 



nets, which are stripped of their down, and then sold in the 

 Edinburgh and other markets for sixpence apiece. The eggs 

 of the gulls and kittiwakes are excellent ; but those of the 

 guillemots, razor-bills, and puffins are rank-tasted. 



I was amused to see the high mark they set upon the 

 " purple geese," or those which have speckled backs, in con- 

 sequence of not having quite shed the brown feathers. They 

 are about three years old, and the beauty of the bird is in 

 exact ratio to the brown spots on its back. For my part, I 

 thought the pure white much handsomer. To please the old 

 boatman, I shot a " purple," as well as a snowy specimen to 

 stuff, and another pure white bird for his feathers, to dress 

 sea-flies. They are superior for this purpose even to those of 

 a swan. 



Numbers of gannets flitted past with billfuls of decayed 

 sea-weed for building their nests. These were formed entirely 

 of this material, as we ascertained from examining the habita- 

 tions 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 depopulated, 

 from fishermen and others having shot them when they wan- 

 dered up the Firth in August, after an unusually long-continued 

 shoal of herrings. The manner of the solan's attack upon these 

 shoals is very curious. From a height of fifty or sixty feet, 

 he comes down into the deep head foremost, with the solidity 

 of a stone. I have watched a dozen follow each other in reg- 

 ular 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 



