13 
Dr. R. 0. Cunningham on the Solan Goose. 
Having thus passed in review the various notices of the Solan 
Goose which are to be met with in the works of the more cele¬ 
brated of the earlier authors, we may now proceed to offer some 
observations on our present knowledge of its natural history. 
The Gannet, or Solan Goose, is the Anser Bassanus or Scoticus of 
Gesner, Aldrovandus, Jonston, Willughby, and the greater 
number of the older authors ; the Sula Hoieri of Clusius, Wil¬ 
lughby and Ray; Pelecanus Bassanus of Linnaeus, Gmelin, 
Latham, &c.; the Sula Bassana of Brisson and modern authors 
in general; the Sula alba of Meyer, Temrninek, and Fleming; 
the JPeisser Tolpel of Mayer; the Bassanische Pelikan of Bech- 
stein ; and the Fou blanc and Fou de Bassan of French authors. 
Its popular names are as follows: in English it is termed 
Gannet and Soland Goose; in Welsh, Gan; in Gaelic, Sulair and 
Guga ; in Norse, Sula and Hafsula; in Greenland, Konksuk ; in 
German, Solendgans and Schottengans; in Dutch, Jaen van 
Gent; and in French, le Fou. 
The name Gannet is intimately connected with our modern 
English Gander, both words being modifications of the ancient 
British“gan” or “gans,” which is the same word with the modern 
German “Gans,” which in its turn corresponds with the old High 
German “Kans,” the Greek ^rjv, the Latin anser, and the Sanskrit 
“hansa”*, all of which possess the same signification, viz. a Goose. 
The origin of the names Solan or Soland, Sulan, Sula, and Haf- !8io 
sula, which are evidently all closely related, is not so obvious. 
Martin informs us that u some imagine that the word Solan comes 
from the Irish Souler, corrupted and adapted to the Scottish 
language, qui oculis irretortis e longinquo respiciat prcedamP The 
earlier writers in general derive the word from the Latin solea 
in consequence of the bird’s supposed habit of hatching its egg 
with its foot; and in a note intercalated into Ray’s description 
* [This word, though applied to a different bird and in a slightly dif¬ 
ferent form, has probably survived to our own time. u Hanser ” or 
u Hernser ” (with the still further corruption, as in the old proverb, of 
u Handsaw ”) is now-a-days in many places the common name for Ardea 
cinerea , and seems as if it could be hardly anything else than the Sanskrit 
“ hansa.” If so, “ HeronShaw,” abbreviated to Heron” and “ Hem,” 
is naturally from the same root.— Ed.] 
