474 
PELICANIDAL 
NATA TOMES. 
PELICANIDjE. 
GANNET, 
SOLAN GOOSE—BASS GOOSE. 
SlTLA BASSANA. 
PLATE CXXX. FIG. III. 
Solan Geese breed together in great numbers, and 
are chiefly confined to the following localities on the 
British coast:—Ailsa Crag in the Frith of Clyde, Sou- 
liskerry near the Orkneys, the Bass Rock in the Frith 
of Forth, which is whitened with their numbers, and 
the far St. Kilda, where, with various other sea-birds, 
they form almost the sole food of the inhabitants, 
who capture them in great numbers, whilst seated on 
their eggs, by means of a noose of hair, which, being 
fastened to the end of a long stick, is slipped over the 
heads of the birds, by which, being drawn off their legs, 
they are soon strangled; thousands of the sea-birds thus 
caught are either eaten whilst fresh, or dried for winter 
store. It had long been one of my most dearly-cher¬ 
ished bird-nesting schemes to visit St. Kilda; it was, 
therefore, greatly to my delight that I found myself 
one of a steam-boat party, on my way to that island. 
The weather had been stormy, and the long, unbroken 
swell of the Western Ocean, which met us as we got 
sight of the lonely isle, was everywhere enlivened by 
multitudes of Gannets, which were either winging their 
way home, or buoyantly floating over each succeeding 
