GANNET. 



497 



sea, they sometimes lower each other down from above, by 

 ropes in baskets, to collect their game from the shelvings 

 and fissures of the rocks chosen by these sagacious birds. 

 The young are a favorite dish with the North Britons in 

 general, and during the season they are constantly brought 

 from the Bass Isle to Edinburgh. 



As might be supposed, the Gannets are in these islands 

 birds of passage, making their first appearance in the month 

 of March, continuing there till August or September, ac- 

 cording as the inhabitants take or leave their first egg ; but 

 in general, the time of breeding, and departing, appears to 

 coincide with the arrival of the Herring, and its migration 

 out of those seas. It is probable that the Gannets attend 

 the herring and the pilchard during their whole circuit round 

 the British islands; the appearance of the former being 

 always esteemed by the fishermen as a sure presage of the 

 approach of the latter. It migrates in quest of food as far 

 south as the mouth of the Tagus, being frequently seen off 

 Lisbon in December, plunging for Sardines. 



In the month of August, Dr. Harvey observed in Cath- 

 ness their northern migrations ; they were passing the whole 

 day in flocks, from five to fifteen in each. In calm weather 

 they fly high ; in storms they proceed lower and near the 

 shore ; but never cross over the land, even when a bay with 

 its promontories intervenes, but follow, at an equal distance, 

 the course of the bay, and regularly double every cape. 

 Many of the moving parties would make a sort of halt for 

 the sake of fishing ; for this purpose, they soar to a great 

 height, then darting headlong into the sea, make the water 

 foam and swell with the violence of the concussion, after 

 which they pursue their route. With the arrival of the 

 shoals of pilchards in the latter end of summer, they are 

 seen on the coast of Cornwall, and in November, when 

 they retire, the Gannets mostly disappear, though a few 

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