28 Gannets 



clapping his wings to his side and phuiging headlong into tlie waves 

 below like a thunderbolt ; * a cloud of spray rises as he strikes the 

 water and disappears. After a short interval he bobs up again on 

 the surface like a cork, rests for a second, and then flaps off and 

 takes his place in an orderly way in the hshing flock above. Bird 

 after bird dives, disappears and repeats the same manteuvres, and 

 the amount of fish consumed by fifty or sixty Gannets at work, 

 even in an hour or two, must be enormous. 



They do not always make their dive from a great altitude ; 

 sometimes they will j^lunge on their prey from a height of 20 feet 

 or less, and I suppose that in these instances the fish are swimming 

 quite on the surface, but as a rule they do make their dive from a 

 height of at least 60 feet and often 100 feet or more. It is, of course, 

 no chance diving ; they actually see the fish swimming at a depth 

 of, say, 7 or 8 feet from 60 to 100 feet above tfie surface of the 

 water, take their aim, plunge, and hardly ever miss their shot.j 



The largest flock of Gannets I ever saw in autumn or winter 

 was in the English Channel about the middle of November, 1899. 

 I was crossing to Ostend, and rather more than half way across we 

 ran into a huge multitude of Gannets, that had evidently struck a 

 very large shoal of fish, and were very busy with them. These 

 birds were, without exception, as far as I could see, in fully adult 

 plumage, and the bright sun shining on their white plumage made 

 them singularly effective objects. They were absolutely fearless 

 of the steamer and very intent on their fishing, and as we passed 

 through them, the birds were often plunging within 20 or 30 yards of 

 the boat, so that I could see the colour of the eye quite plainly. 

 The Gannets "header " is absolutely characteristic. However 

 far off the bird may be, if he is within the range of vision at 

 all, the lightning plunge from a great height, and the clouds of 

 spray that rise as he disappears into the sea are unmistakable. It 

 is a matter of regret to me that I could find no illustration of a flock 

 of Gannets engaged in fishing. None of the books I inspected, 

 figure the Gannet's dive, though I am sure in these days of universal 

 photography, they must have been snapped in the act over and over 

 again. J The Gannet has a very elaborate system of air-sacs, both 

 imderneath the skin and in the osseous system, which can be inflated 

 or emptied at pleasure, and it is, in a great measure, to these, I 

 imagine, that this bird is indebted for its remarkable diving power, 



* This description is not quite accurate. Since the Gannet's prey is not stationary, but 

 continually moving about, it is necessary for the bird to maintain its power of steering during 

 the descent, so the wings remain partly extended, and are not" clapped to the sides " until the bird 

 is within, say, a yard of the water. Control of direction is thus retained, and slight changes in 

 direction can be effected up to the last moment. — Editor. 



f It is not easy to determine whether the plunge lias been successful or not, since Gannets 

 do not, usually at least, rise to the surface with the fish in their beaks, but pouch their prey while 

 still submerged ; direct evidence of success is thiis lacking. — Editor. 



J A very clever sketch of Gannets diving for fish, in which the succes.sive attitudes during 

 the plunge are accurately rendered, is published in Mrs. Hugh Blackburn's book on the " Birds 

 of Moidart," 1895, pi. 79 ; also in" Birds drawn from Nature," i8(>2, by the same artist, pi. 2, — 

 Editor. 



