382 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



been taken alive in Booth Deane, October 1831 ; on Norland Moor, 

 December 6th 1844, and a young specimen on lUingworth Moor, Sep- 

 tember 2ist 1836; a first year's bird of this species fell exhausted 

 on Staincross Moor, near Barnsley, which passed into the hands of Dr. 

 Farrar, who forwarded it to the aviary at Wentworth House, where 

 it lived many months and at last, as he says, had the supreme pleasure 

 of dying of repletion, the result of an experiment to test its powers 

 in that accomplishment ; a few years since a specimen was sent to 

 Henry Chapman of York, which had been picked up dead a few miles 

 from the coast ; in descending on its prey (a garfish), in its accustomed 

 and well-known manner, the sharp upper mandible of the fish passed 

 obliquely through the eye and entered the brain through the optic 

 nerve ; the end of the mandible had broken off and caused the death 

 of the bird. A. Strickland says that after the breeding season, and 

 when the herring sprats and other fish are numerous, these birds are 

 generally found on the coast, and occasionally later in the winter. 



The Gannet cannot with accuracy be termed a resident, 

 though it is seldom absent from some part of the sea off 

 Yorkshire, and it is perhaps best described as a periodical 

 visitant to the coast on its passage to and from its northern 

 breeding stations, being most abundant in autumn, when 

 old and young birds, the latter predominating, may be seen 

 diligently employed amongst the herrings and other fish. 

 As a rule a few appear soon after the nesting season in early 

 August, whilst in September and October they are often quite 

 numerous in the neighbourhood of the herring shoals, some- 

 times inshore, and at others several miles away in the offing, 

 especially near Flamborough Head, where large numbers 

 have frequently been noticed, and they were particularly 

 abundant in October 1895. In the late autumn it would 

 appear that the Gannets which are then off the coast keep far 

 out at sea, as they are only observed when driven in by gales. 

 During the prevalence of a storm on I2th-i3th November 

 1901, several adults were fomid on Redcar beach and in the 

 Tees estuary, and an immature bird was caught asleep during 

 a " north-easter " on 25th November 1904. I have rarely 

 noted it in winter ; one occurred at Redcar in December 

 1874, and in January 1876 three adults were killed, one being 

 stunned with an oar ; on 2nd January 1894 twenty or thirty 

 were seen flying up and down the Humber side at Spurn. 



