262 PELECANID^. 



Breeding-haunU. — The adult gannets seen about the coasts of 

 Autrim and Down in summer — and at five o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, as already stated,, I have observed them about the Copeland 

 Islands — are probably daily wanderers from their nearest breeding- 

 haunts, or, indeed, their only near one, the Craig of Ailsa, from 

 which the birds about Horn Head, in Donegal, also, probably 

 come, as St. Kilda, their next nearest and only other breeding- 

 haunt on the western coast of Scotland, is still more distant. It 

 has been remarked of Ailsa — " The broken summits of the co- 

 lumns [of basalt, huge fragments of which encumber the beach 

 below] serve to give a variety that increases the general pictu- 

 resque effect. These are the habitations and nests of the gannets, 

 innumerable flocks of which annually breed here ; forming, with 

 the various tribes of gulls, puiilns, auks, and other sea-fowl, a 

 feathered population scarcely exceeded by that of St. Xilda or the 

 riannan Isles. As the alarm occasioned by the arrival of a boat 

 spreads itself, the whole of this noisy multitude takes wing, form- 

 ing a clou.d in the atmosphere which bears a striking resemblance 

 to a fall of snow, or to the scattering of autumnal leaves in a 

 storm. To prevent interference in their courses, each cloud of 

 birds occupies a distinct stratum in the air, circidating in one 

 direction, and in a perpetual wheeling flight."^ 



Although I have not visited Ailsa, its noble pyramidal form, 

 rising to the altitude of 1,100 feet above the sea,t has always 

 been familiar to me, forming, as it does, so fine a feature in the 

 scenery when viewed from the north-e^^st coast of Ireland. But 

 while shooting on moors in Ayrshire, I have had the pleasure of 

 making a nearer acquaintance with it, as thence casting the eye 

 seaward, it was always the grandest object within view. On one occa- 

 sion it v,'as observed from the inland mountains that intensely dark 

 clouds occupied the entire west and north-west, and most dismally 

 grim did Ailsa rise from the dark waters ; again, that it appeared 

 covered with snow towards the summit, so exc[uisitely white were 

 the clouds resting there ; — and several times during two succes- 



* M'Oulloch's ' Western Isles,' vol. ii. p. 493. f Ibid. 



