308 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



Genus SULA, Brisson. 



GANNET. 



Sida bassana (Linnaeus). S.N.., i., p. 217 (1766). 

 Solan Goose. 



The Gannet is frequently seen along the coast of Kent, 

 and has been obtained on many occasions, not only on 

 the sea-coast, but accidentally inland. 



Boys, in his History of Sandwich, 1792, records two 

 instances at Sandwich and Dover. The Eev. J. Pem- 

 berton Bartlett, in 1844, states that it is "common" in 

 Romney Marsh, which is confirmed by the following 

 account, which I have received from Dr. F. Plomley. 

 " In westerly wunds," he says, "the Gannet is very com- 

 monly driven on shore. I have had very many fine 

 specimens brought to me, one of which I sent to the 

 Zoological Gardens a year or two since." 



Mr. R. 0. White, writing on March 5, 1847, from Dart- 

 ford, says : " A few days since a Gannet was brought to 

 me which had been captured by a shepherd in a turnip 

 field, about three miles from this place. The man had 

 much difficulty in securing it, and his hands were torn 

 in many places by its beak. The fact of it not flying 

 when he approached it, and of there being no food in its 

 stomach, induced me to suppose it was weakened by 

 hunger. I hardly know whether the circumstance is 

 worth writing about, but I have neither seen nor heard 

 of it occurring so far up the Thames, and the field 

 in which it was caught was fully five miles from the 

 river." 



In 1868 Mr. John Hunter says that " at the end 

 of September, 1867, a man found a Gannet, in the 



