Wanderings of a Naturalist 



reasoning, though in many ways the intelligence of the solan 

 is very low in the scale. It is, for instance, almost incredible 

 that, after tending her young assiduously for ten to twelve 

 weeks, the mother solan should take not the faintest interest 

 in its initial flight from the Rock. Even if, during this first 

 flight, the young bird should lose its nerve and be dashed 

 to death on a projecting ledge, the parent still betrays not 

 the slightest anxiety as to its fate. 



On the morning of September 14 I had a young bird under 

 observation. It was well grown and was periodically flutter- 

 ing its wings as though anxious to be off. Occasionally it 

 would make pretence at nest-building, picking up straws in 

 its bill and strewing them about aimlessly. A little later 

 on in the day, when the parent bird was beside it on the 

 nesting ledge, it set out on its first flight. For a young bird 

 leaving the Rock for the first time its flight was exceptionally 

 strong, and it progressed a distance of quite half a mile 

 from the Rock before alighting on the sea. I immediately 

 turned my glasses on the old bird to see whether she had 

 taken any interest in the departure of her offspring. Un- 

 believable though it may seem, she was sitting contentedly on 

 the remains of the nest and was busying herself in replacing 

 odd pieces of straw and grass, while the very existence of 

 her youngster had apparently faded entirely from her mind ! 



Nest-building is a habit firmly implanted in all gannets 

 young and old. I noted that the youngster for wliom — as 

 I mentioned before — seaweed and straw were brought, worked 

 as assiduously as its parents in welding the newly-deposited 

 material into the hardened foundations of the nest. In the 

 bottom of this nest the half-digested remains of a fish were 

 lying — disgorged, probably, by the young bird — and once, 

 on the latter moving to the side of the nest, the parent caught 

 sight of the remains. She evidently came to the conclusion 

 that the object must be removed and that the most obvious 

 thing to do was to eat it herself. Doubtless the fish had long 

 passed the stage when it could be termed fresh, and the 



132 



