92 EARLY ANNALS OF ORNITHOLOGY 
Rout is also a Scotch provincialism, and Jamieson thinks it 
was a name intended for the Brent Goose.* 
Meaning of Brent Goose.—The Brent is a bird which I 
have often heard called Rode or Road Goose on the estuary 
of the river Tees in Durham, where in winter it is rather 
common, and this is an appellation not very dissimilar from 
the spelling adopted by the poet Skelton. On the coast of 
Durham the name Road Goose has probably been in use 
for centuries, judging from Willughby’s mention in “ The 
Ornithology ” (1678, p. 361) of the Rat-Goose or Road 
Goose, as coming in packs to the Tees. It is curious that 
neither Willughby nor Ray realised that the Road Goose was 
the same as the Brent Goose—an error in which they were 
followed by Ray’s friend, Samuel Dale. 
In connection with Scotland, the word “ Routs” also 
occurs in Gordon’s “ Earldom of Sutherland’ (1630), as 
well as the name Ringouse, which latter is similar to the 
German Ringel-Gans, and is probably another name for the 
Brent. From Mr. J. E. Harting’s observations it would 
appear to be very likely that both these names, as well as 
Rut-goys (1530), Rot-gans of the Dutch, and Radde-Guss 
of the Heligolanders are traceable to the same root, and 
have been earned by this species from its habit of feeding 
upon grass-wrack, submerged at high, and exposed at low, 
tide. t 
The Solan Goose, 1511—1529.—Information about the 
Solan Goose is still scanty, but it is now that we first hear, 
and from four different sources, of the famous Gannetry on 
Ailsa Craig, as well as of the equally important one at Sulisgeir 
on the north-west coast of Scotland. Royalty was not averse 
from partaking of the Solan Goose, as appears from the Privy- 
purse accounts of James IV. of Scotland, some items from 
which have been communicated by Mr. J. Anderson, who 
* See ‘‘ Dictionary of the Scottish Language ”’ (1825, Suppt.). 
t Item, 3 Februarii [1533] 1 rutgoys, 3d.—1 mawlert [mallard], 2d. 
—€ dunlyngs, 2d.—1 seepye, Id. (‘' Liber Bursarii Ecclesia) Dunelmensis, 
p. 327), Onanother page of this “ Liber ’’ it is amusing to read of ‘‘ 3 pisces 
vocatos puffynes”’ being brought to the Prior (p, 54), On pages 46 and 129 
the Whympernell is mentioned, no doubt the Whimbrel. 
t See “ Handbook of British Birds,’ 1901, p. 238. ‘‘ Rodge,” as applied 
to the Gadwall, probably has the same origin. Rotington, in Cumberland, 
is thought to derive its name from Rotgoose (‘‘ Fauna of Lakeland,” p. 244). 
