5 
Dr. R. 0. Cunningham on the Solan Goose. 
nigra erat: corporis ambitus viginti quatuor uncias, hoc est, 
binos pedes Romanos explebat, alse plus quhm pedem longae, 
caudse vero longiores pennse septem unciamm longitudinem 
non superabant; crura satis tenuia & infirma habebat, eaque 
binis unciis non longiora, & nigra prorsus coloris, ut etiam pedes, 
qui valde lati, quatuor digitis constantes, quorum exterior & 
illi proximus (qui longissimi) tribus articulationibus constabant, 
tertius duabus, minimus una, singuli parvo ungue prsediti prseter 
secundum, cujus unguis paullo latior, & altero latere serratus, 
omnes autem nigra membrana simul connexi: longiores porro 
& remiges alarum pennse totse nigrse, ut etiam tres illse quse in 
cauda inferiores et longiores, mediumque caudse locum occu- 
pantes*: reliquum corpus albse pennse tegebant; quse tamen 
in dorso, non nihil subflavescebant, tamquam luto aut pulvere 
conspersse fuissent.” 
Forty-five years later we find a notice of the Gannet in Jo li¬ 
st on^s e Historia Naturalis de Avibus’ (p. 94). It contains but 
little additional information regarding it, beyond the fact that 
the flesh is hard and dry, as the author can state from personal 
experience of it derived in the course of a visit to Scotland in 
1623 ; but it is accompanied by a most remarkable figure, bear¬ 
ing the title of “ Schotisch Gans ” and representing a singu¬ 
larly hideous bird, with huge nostrils and tarsi armed with 
formidable spursf. 
In the well-known ‘ Exercitationes de Gcneratione* of the cele¬ 
brated William Harvey, which was published in 1651, there is a 
very interesting passage (p. 30), descriptive of the nidification of 
the Gannet on the Bass Rock. We are there informed that the 
surface of the island in the months of May and June is almost 
entirely covered with nests, eggs, and young birds, so as to 
render it almost impossible to avoid trampling on them ; that 
such is the density of the flight of the old birds in the air, that 
like a cloud they darken the sun and the sky; and that the 
* This statement, as to the occurrence of black feathers in the tail is 
rather curious, reminding one of the South African Sulci melanura. It is 
probably an indication of youth. 
f [This is a reduced copy from Aldrovandi’s figure, Ornith. &c., tom. i. 
p. 163 .—Ed.] 
