222 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



gannet, I can not do better than quote what Mr. Gurney (1913) has 

 to say about it, as follows : 



When the young gannets are twelve or thirteen weeks old, instinct tells their 

 parents that they are quite fat enough for their own good, and that any more 

 stuffing with fish will make them too unwielding to fly. Accordingly it would 

 seem that they desist from feeding their young for tlie last ten days before they 

 quit the ledges. As a matter of fact, it must be an exceedingly necessary pre- 

 caution, for if too heavy, the young gannet, when it laimches itself for the 

 first time into space, would often not get clear of the rocks. When the day 

 comes for the mighty plunge to be made, spi'eading wide their great sails of 

 wings, the young gannets may be seen to half fly, half fall, into the abyss below. 

 This does not take place until the month of September has commenced, and 

 then numbers of them are to be seen quitting the safety of their ledges. A 

 singular, not to say absurd sight, it is to stand, as my son and I did, on the 

 Bass Rock and watch their awliwardness and hesitation, like that of a timid 

 human bather about to take a first header into the water. I reckoned, when I 

 was there in 1906, that between August the 29th and September the 4tli, two 

 hundred and fifty young gannets made the plunge, and , with it took their 

 departure from the Bass Rock. 



For some days before their actual departure the young gannets may be 

 seen continually flapping their long black wings, which is done, it is to be 

 presumed, to relax the joints and strengthen the ligaments ; ten or twelve 

 young gannets may be viewed going through this performance at the same 

 time on the ledges. Notwithstanding so mucli preparation, some make a bad 

 start, and I was told at Ailsa Craig, where there is a belt of rock-strewni 

 shore to be crossed, that they not infrequently full on to it. In squally 

 weather others lose their balance and are carried by a gust of wind down 

 into the sea before they are ready. But even if they do meet with either of 

 these mishaps, they are not necessarily left to die, for old ones — very likely 

 not their OAvn parents — will sometimes provide for them. 



The flight, or, rather, descent, of the young gannet from its natal ledge is 

 a very unsteady performance, yet on the whole it is well sustained, so that 

 the bird has probably achieved a distance of half a mile before the final de- 

 scending curve into the sea takes place, which ends with a mighty splash 

 caused by impact with the water. The otopyn, or natural effection, of which 

 Gilbert White wrote so eloquently, is now past and over, and the young one 

 must shift for itself as best it can in the world of waters. When once 

 launched, the young gannet is comparatively safe, except that it is now in 

 some measure at the mercy of the tide. In the sea it remains, drifting hither 

 and thither for the space of two or three weeks. It is apparently unable to 

 rise from the water, and all evidence points to its receiving no food whatever 

 except the sustenance contained in its own subcutaneous layer of grease, which 

 is considerable enough to impart nutriment to the rest of the body. Besides 

 the tide, it has to reckon with any high wind, but September is generally a 

 tranquil time of the year and young gannets from Ailsa or the Bass soon 

 work their way out to sea. 



Having reached the sea, we shall be safe in assuming that the young gannet 

 will be nearly four months old before it voluntarily essays a second flight. 

 Even this is much less than is the case with the young albatross. Then a 

 new phase of its life begins ; it rises from the water with a newly found 

 power, henceforth to find its own livelihood by those beautiful plunges which 

 are the admiration of all who see them. 



