SOLAN GOOSE. 245 
Devon, and the Skelig Isles, are less known English 
and Irish stations. 
It is on the Bass Bock, in the Firth of Forth, 
only that we have seen this bird assembled to breed ; 
and altogether, it is perhaps one of the most in- 
teresting sights that the ornithologist can he placed 
before, whether he surveys the crowd nestling upon 
their eggs, greeting their mates on their arrival from 
the sea, or squabbling, if one happens to intrude 
a little too near another ; or to sit aside and view 
the troops of birds in adult and changing and first 
year’s plumage, pass and repass, surveying their 
visitor, and sailing past him in a smooth, noiseless 
flight, so near, that the eye and every feather is dis- 
tinctly seen, the bird motionless, except a slight 
inclination of the head when opposite. On the 
Bass, the great proportion of the birds build on the 
ledges of the precipitous face of the rock ; but a 
considerable number also place their nests on the 
summit, near the edge, where they can be walked 
among ; there the birds are quite tame, allowing a 
person to approach them, and will fight at the foot 
when held out. On our last visit to this rock, we 
had a small cocker in company, which, in such 
situations, gave regular battle to the geese, though 
commonly forced to retreat ; and had he not been 
tied up, it is nearly certain that he would either 
have lost his sight, or been tumbled over the rock, 
by the strokes of the birds’ wings. Several of the 
breeding birds have black (or immature) feathers on 
