262 
PELECANIDyE » 
Breeding -haunts ,— The adult gannets seen about the coasts of 
Antrim and Down in summer — and at five o’clock in the morn- 
ing, as already stated, I have observed them about the Copeland 
Islands — are probably daily wanderers from their nearest breeding- 
haunts, or, indeed, their only near one, the Craig of Ailsa, from 
which the birds about Horn Head, in Donegal, also, probably 
come, as St. Kilda, their next nearest and only other breeding- 
haunt on the western coast of Scotland, is still more distant. It 
has been remarked of Ailsa — “ The broken summits of the co- 
lumns [of basalt, huge fragments of which encumber the beach 
below] serve to give a variety that increases the general pictu- 
resque effect. These are the habitations and nests of the gannets, 
innumerable flocks of which annually breed here ; forming, with 
the various tribes of gulls, puffins, auks, and other sea-fowl, a 
feathered population scarcely exceeded by that of St. Kilda or the 
Hannan Isles. As the alarm occasioned by the arrival of a boat 
spreads itself, the whole of this noisy multitude takes wing, form- 
ing a cloud in the atmosphere which bears a striking resemblance 
to a fall of snow, or to the scattering of autumnal leaves in a 
storm. To prevent interference in their courses, each cloud of 
birds occupies a distinct stratum in the air, circulating in one 
direction, and in a perpetual wheeling flight.” - * 
Although I have not visited Ailsa, its noble pyramidal form, 
rising to the altitude of 1,100 feet above the sea,t has always 
been familiar to me, forming, as it does, so fine a feature in the 
scenery when viewed from the north-east coast of Ireland. But 
while shooting on moors in Ayrshire, I have had the pleasure of 
making a nearer acquaintance with it, as thence casting the eye 
seaward, it was always the grandest object within view. On one occa- 
sion it was observed from the inland mountains that intensely dark 
clouds occupied the entire west and north-west, and most dismally 
grim did Ailsa rise from the dark waters ; again, that it appeared 
covered with snow towards the summit, so exquisitely white were 
the clouds resting there ; — and several times during two succes- 
M‘Cullocli’s e Western Isles/ vol. ii. p. 493. 
f Ibid. 
