Gannets 25 



were a pair or two of these birds on the island, but the majorit}' 

 contained either young or a single egg, small for the size of the bird, 

 pale blue in ground colour, and overlaid with a chalky material, 

 which makes the egg look white when newly laid, but which soon 

 becomes soiled as incubation proceeds. 



Of the young in the nests, there were to be seen examples of 

 various ages. Some were newly hatched, hideous little black 

 objects, naked, without a trace of down, and the eyelids not yet 

 open ; others, perhaps 14-21 days old, were covered with a soft, 

 white down, and were very quaint and beautiful to look at. These 

 birds are 10 or 11 weeks before they are fit to leave their nests, 

 and the last stage of the plumage is exceedingly curious. They 

 have now acquired the dark brown, spotted plumage belonging to 

 the first year, the tail and quill feathers are well developed, but the 

 head and neck still retain the fluffy, white down of infancy, so that 

 the bird looks like a brown Gannet masquerading in a barrister's 

 wig (Fig. i). This wig, and the remains of the nestling down, are 

 speedib' lost as the feathers of the 3'ear push their wa\- out, and the 

 down is shed as the feathers acquire their full length. 



It is very rare to find birds in the exact stage of plumage I 

 have just described, and I know of no illustration figuring such a 

 bird, except on the plate in Booth's " Rough Notes." The late Mr. 

 Booth, perhaps the best field ornithologist of our time, kept this 

 species in captivity, and recorded the changes in their plumage 

 from the nestling to the fully adult bird. 



Unsavoury as any large bird colony must be, I think nothing 

 equals the Gannets' home in this respect, and the stench on this 

 hot, sultry June da\' was really almost unsupportable. This is due, 

 not so much to the excrement of the birds, which, of course, thickly 

 covers the ground, as to the great quantity of fish-remains, in every 

 stage of decomposition. I don't suppose more than half the fish 

 brought to the young by the parents is consumed, and the rock I 

 was standing on was littered with uneaten fish in a horribly putrid 

 condition ; and besides these, a number of packets of semi-digested 

 fish, done up rather like a parcel of smoked sprats in a fishmonger's 

 shop, only, of course, of a greater bulk. Gannets often fly far 

 afield in search of their food, and they swallow the fish they capture 

 in order to ensure its safe porterage. On returning to their nests, 

 they disgorge their load of fish, which has become partial!}' digested 

 during the flight, and is then found in the form of the rather neat 

 packets I have described. These packets are again swallowed by 

 the sitting bird, and, after a further process of digestion, the food is 

 offered to the young. Besides these fishy remains, there were a few 

 entire fish, which appeared to have been recently caught, and were, 

 presumably, taken at no great distance from the rock. 



The nests, if nests they could be called, were of the most element- 

 ary description, small heaps of tangle and scraps of sea-weed loosely 

 put together, from 4 to 6 inches in height, and occasionally a few 



