THE GANNET. 365 



Kilda. On the subject of the flights from such localities we 

 have the following information : — " These islands are the favourite 

 resort of gannets. No disturbances ever appear sufficient to in- 

 duce these, more than the other species of sea-fowl, to change 

 their haunts, nor do they court uninhabited places in particular. 

 In leaving St. Kilda in an evening, they are met flying home in 

 long flocks, separated widely from each otlier, and apparently each 

 under a separate leader. At seventy miles from the island they 

 were all found directing their course to it. It is imagined by 

 the seamen and fishermen of this coast, that they fly out in the 

 morning to feed, even to the southern parts of Britain, and return 

 in the evening; a circumstance not improbable, when the strength 

 and rapidity of their flight is considered.'"* That they fly so far 

 — though having the power to do so — is, I conceive, very impro- 

 bable. From a more recent visitor to the island, we learn that — 

 " The gannet {Sula alba) is to be seen in vast numbers about 

 St. Kilda, from whence a portion of tliem take their departure 

 every morning to fish in tlie bays and channels of the outer He- 

 brides, the nearest of which is about fifty miles distant. I have 

 even seen them in Dunvegan Lough, in the Isle of Skye, about 

 ninety miles from St. Kilda, to which I have no doubt they all 

 retire at night. In fact, long strings of gannets may be seen on 

 the approach of evening, winging their way to the westward^' 

 (p. 64). ^ •5«- -J^- "The account given by Martin of the barren 

 gannets, wliicli roost separately from the others, was confirmed by 

 the natives."t 



Sir Wilham Jardine gives, from personal observation, a very 

 interesting account of the gannets at the Bass Rock,J where they 

 appear to be as tame as Audubon describes them on the American 

 coast, or, indeed, hardly less so than voyagers report birds to be 

 on the first visit to uninliabited islands. 



* M'Culloch's ' Western Islands of Scotland/ vol. ii. j). 54. 



t " Account of the Island of St. KOda," &c. ; by John Macgillivray. Ediu. 

 rhil. Jouni., No. 63, January, 1842, p. 66. 



\ 'British Birds,' vol. iv. p. 245. 



