382 Birds. 
colour of the plumage is a dingy white, with a greyish 
tinge. Surrounding each eye there is a naked skin of a 
fine blue colour ; from the corner of the mouth a narrow 
slip of naked black skin extends to the hind part of the 
head ; and beneath the chin there is a pouch capable of 
containing five or six herrings. The neck is long ; the 
body flat, and very full of feathers. On the crown of 
the head, and the back part of the neck, is a small buff- 
coloured space. The quill-feathers, and some other parts 
of the wings, are black ; as are also the legs, except a fine 
pea-green stripe in front. The tail is wedge-shaped, and 
consists of twelve sharp-pointed feathers. 
These birds chiefly resort to those uninhabited islands 
where man seldom comes to disturb them. The islands 
to the north, Ailsa Craig, on the west coast of Scotland, 
the Skelig Islands, off the coasts of Kerry in Ireland, and 
those that lie in the North Sea off Norway, abound with 
them. But it is on the Bass Eock, in the Frith of Forth, 
that they are seen in the greatest abundance. " There is 
a small island," says the celebrated Harvey, " called the 
Bass, not more than a mile in circumference ; the surface 
is almost wholly covered during the months of May and 
June with the nests of the Solan Geese, their eggs, and 
their young. It is scarcely possible to walk without 
treading on them : the flocks of birds upon the wing are 
so numerous as to darken the air like a cloud ; and their 
noise is such, that one cannot without difficulty be heard 
by the person next to him. When one looks down upon 
the sea from the precipice, its whole surface seems covered 
with infinite numbers of birds of different kinds, swim-, 
ming and pursuing their prey. If, in sailing round the 
island, one surveys its hanging cliffs', in every crag or 
fissure of the broken rocks may be seen innumerable 
birds, of various sorts and sizes, more than the stars of 
heaven when viewed in a serene night. If they are 
viewed at a distance, either receding or in their ap- 
proach to the island, they seem like one vast swarm of 
bees." 
