THE GANNET. 171 
frst! It would be hardly possible for an ornithologist to have a finer boating 
excursion, at least in Great Britain, than that round Hoy head in the breeding 
season,” 
Family—S ULIDAE. 
THE GANNET. 
Sula bassana, LINN. 
HE Solan Goose, as the Gannet is very often named, is one of the most splendid 
members of the British av-/fauna. It is a large, heavy, goose-like, marine 
bird, with a long conical bill, and long and pointed wings. When fully adult, its 
plumage, in both sexes, is pure white, tinged with buff on the head and neck, with 
the outer edge of the wing and its primary quills and their coverts black; the 
nude skin of the throat, and round the eye, dark blue; the iris yellowish 
white; the frontal shield bright green; the bill horn colour, with dark blue lines ; 
and the legs and feet black. 
The Gannet is not a common bird; its habitats and breeding places are 
few, far apart, and difficult of access. In South Britain, these are Lundy Island, 
off the coast of Devon; and Grassholm, off the coast of Pembrokeshire. In former 
times the Farne Islands, on the Northumberland coast, were a constant resort; for 
we find it recorded that Sir Thomas Swinburne, High Sheriff of Northumberland, 
gave ten shillings to his ‘“‘cosen William Read’s man’s man for sea fowle (Eider 
Ducks and Solan Geese) out of the Ffarne Yland,” during the assize week, in the 
year 1628. In North Britain its homes are Ailsa Craig, at the entrance to the 
Firth of Clyde; the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth; North Barra, otherwise 
known as the Stack of Salis Kerry, thirty-five miles north of the Butt of Lewis; 
and the Stack, some forty miles west of Stromness. They are occasionally to be 
