Gannets 29 



falling from a great height like a stone shot from a catapult. The force 

 with which the birds strike the water is very severe, and their bony 

 skeleton has a special mechanism to lessen the shock as far as possible. 

 In the arrangement of the shoulder-girdle, the coracoids are articu- 

 lated in a direction nearly parallel to the axis of the sternum, 

 instead of nearly at right angles to it, as is the case with most birds, 

 even with their near relations, the Cormorants ; the object being to 

 increase the strength, and at the same time to offer as little resistance 

 to the di\-ing progress as possible. 



In common with many other sea-fowl whose home is the open 

 sea, Gannets suffer \'ery severely in stormy weather, if these 

 conditions are prolonged for any length of time. Their lives depend 

 on the fish they catch ; the storms drive the fish from the surface 

 to deeper water, and there they remain until the weather moderates. 

 The wretched birds are unable to rest on the broken w-ater ; food 

 the}' have none, and they are buffeted and tossed by the gale day 

 after day, until, finally, they perish of exhaustion and starvation. 



On the east coast, I ha\'e seen the high-water mark strewn 

 with dead sea-fowl. Guillemots, Razor-bills, Puffins, Little Auks, 

 and Gannets, after a prolonged gale. 



If vou skin any of the unfortunates, 30U find their stomachs 

 absolutely empty without a trace of food, and their bodies wasted 

 to mere skeletons. I sometimes wonder what toll the storms take of 

 Gannets and such like birds, whose manner of life keeps them out 

 at sea and far from shelter of any kind ; one must think in very big 

 figures. A gale of even two or three days' duration entails the most 

 horrible suffering for the poor creatures, and if it persists for anv 

 length of time, death must be their fate ; death in a most cruel form 

 — starvation, exhaustion, one ceaseless battle against the elements, 

 and failure in the end. There is no bird, to m.y mind, that seems so 

 full of vigour and the joy of living, when the world goes well with 

 him, as a Gannet, and no more pitiable sight than the same bird 

 buffeting up against the relentless " north-easter," struggling on 

 without food- without strength, and finally falling exhausted and 

 being washed up by the incoming tide. 



Gannets have practically no enemies to face but " winter and 

 rough weather," if we except man (he is their only vertebrate enemy). 

 Their size and strength protect them from being preyed on by 

 other birds, and ^'et their annual death-rate must be very high. 



Immense flocks of Gannets sometimes accompany the herring- 

 fleets in the North Sea, or rather accompany the shoals of herring 

 which the fleet are in search of, and in this way are often of service 

 to the fishermen in indicating the exact whereabouts of the fish. 

 All da\' long the Gannets are soaring and diving round the smacks, 

 together with hosts of Gulls. These latter birds are fishing too, 

 but their methods are very different ; sometimes they pluck the fish 

 out of the net itself, if they should be entangled in the upper meshes 

 near the surface, sometimes they snatch a fish off the surface of the 



