ABSTRACT
I shall go on to relate some information, given by a modern Scottish historian, about the Bass Rock, roughly two leagues from Gleghornie, on which is situated an impregnable fortress. Around it throng an astonishing multitude of large, fish-eating ducks, which this writer calls solans. 2 Strictly speaking they are different from ordinary wild or tame ducks, but, since they are very similar in shape and colour, they enjoy the common name of ‘duck’. Nevertheless for purposes of differentiation they are known as solans. During the spring of each year these ducks migrate from the south in flocks to the Bass Rock and circle round it for two to three days. At this time those who live on the rock are careful to make little noise. Then the ducks begin to build nests, and they remain there the whole summer living off fish, while the inhabitants feed on the fish they abstract from these birds. They climb up to the nests, just like the men I mentioned earlier in describing eagle chicks, and take the fish at their pleasure. These birds display extraordinary diligence in catching fish. When with its lynx-sharp eyes it observes a fish at the bottom of the sea, it hurls itself down headlong in its direction, like a sparrow-hawk on a heron, and immediately drags it out with beak and feet. 3 If it sees another, better fish, even at some distance from the rock, it will allow the first one to slip away so that it may capture the one it spotted later.
