A Collector of Oddities

By MinBannister

Ooh a fish!

Solan goose Morus bassanus

They fly high above the water and when they spot a fish like this one has, whoosh, splash! They fold and plummet into the water to catch it.

Both Bass Rock and St Kilda claim to have the largest northern gannetry in the world - it depends which you are reading about.

The St Kildans had different ways of catching the birds. One involved creeping up on them at night, making sure to catch and kill the sentinal bird first before he could wake the rest. The other involved making gintraps from horsehair which the birds would trip on and entangle their legs, enabling them to be caught. Martin Martin, who visited the island in 1697 tells of one man who fell into his own gintrap and spent the night dangling over the cliff by his big toe! He was saved by a neighbour who heard his cries the next morning. The third, and rather suspicious sounding method was to pin a herring to a plank, float it into the water and wait for the bird to spy the herring and plummet to catch it, driving its bill into the wood and becoming stuck. Not too sure I believe in that one!

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