ST. KILDA. 167 



rock, and rebound twelve feet or more with all the agility of a 

 tight-rope dancer.' 



The Gannet, or Solan-goose, which abounds in the north of 

 Scotland and on the numberless islands and rocky fiords which 

 line the Norwegian coast, likewise congregates in vast numbers 

 about St. Kilda, from whence a portion of them take their de- 

 parture every morning to fish for herrings, their favourite food, 

 in the bays and channels of the other Hebrides, the nearest of 

 which is about fifty miles distant. This bird is very select in 

 the choice of its breeding-places, which it occupies to the total 

 exclusion of every other species. None are to be found in Hirta, 

 but the island of Borreray is almost entirely occupied with 

 them, as are also the adjacent rocks, Stack Ly and Stack Narmin. 



Puffin. 



These cliffs are remarkable for their pointed summits and tower- 

 ing height, and appear, even from the distance of many miles, 

 as if they were covered with snow, the deceptive appearance 

 being caused by the myriads of gannets with which the rock is 

 thickly covered, as well as the dense clouds of these white- 

 plumed birds passing and repassing in the neighbourhood of 

 their nests. . Petrels, shearwaters, puffins, guillemots, and auks, 

 are also very abundant about the weather-beaten cliffs of St. 



Kilda. 



If we consider that similar bird-republics are to be found on 

 almost every rocky coast or surf-beaten cliff of the northern 

 seas, we must needs be astonished at the inexhaustible prodi- 



H 



