ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 95 



that we had expected to have come across some eider 

 duck or grebe, but, as I have previously observed, it 

 was getting too late in the season, and not one was to 

 be seen. The water here was intensely smooth, 

 shining, and transparent. Several razorbills (Alca 

 torda), of which I killed three, were diving or fishing 

 singly or in flocks. 



The wind now fast dropping, we rounded the 

 southern side of Fara, and passing Rysa Little, from 

 which a pair of the Manx: shearwater-:' (Puffinus 

 anglorum) have come into my possession, made 

 straight across to Houton Head. 



I have had a shot at a gannet, or solan goose (Sula 

 bassana), as he rode upon the wind overhead. I have 

 never yet come sufficiently near one of these remark- 

 able birds for the shot to penetrate their tough thick 

 skin. They are, moreover, provided with a means of 

 introducing air between their skin and their bodies, 

 making them light and buoyant to the last degree. 

 They, consequently, must receive a very hard blow to 

 bring them down from any great height. These 

 birds are not so common in these parts as they are 

 along the shores of the mainland of Scotland. The 



* On the 2nd July, 1866, 1 descended the cliff of Altahuile, 

 in Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim, Ireland, by means of ropes, to 

 a depth of between sixteen and seventeen fathoms, and took 

 the young of this bird a little downy fledgling capturing 

 the old female in the nest. 



