Dr. R. 0. Cunningham on the Solan Goose. 19 



tained so much more easily. Several eminent authors have gone 

 to the other extreme, and deny that the Gannet ever dives at 

 all ; but I can testify from personal observation that this is in- 

 correct. 



Owing to the extreme power of dilatation which its oesophagus 

 possesses, the bird is capable of swallowing tish of very consi- 

 derable dimensions. Its food, in the Firth of Forth and the 

 other Scottish localities where it occurs^ consists principally of 

 herrings, and, in the English Channel, of pilchards. A specimen 

 which I obtained last winter, and which was kept alive for a 

 few days, was fed on herrings which had been previously ex- 

 tracted from the stomach of a Seal ; these it swallowed very 

 rapidly, head foremost. Its powers of digestion seemed to be 

 vigorous ; for on examining its stomach after it was killed it was 

 found to be nearly empty, with the exception of cod-hooks, 

 which must have been swallowed some time previously and were 

 considerably worn. Not rarely it becomes so gorged with food 

 as to be unable to rise from the surface of the water, on which 

 it reposes in a lethargic state; and while in this condition it 

 may be easily run down and captured if advanced upon in a 

 boat. It is scarcely necessary to mention that the statement of 

 Pennant and other writers, that the Gannet possesses a gular 

 pouch similar to that of the Pelican, and capable of containing 

 five or six herrings, is entirely without foundation. The old 

 bird, according to Macgillivray, at first feeds its young " with a 

 kind of fish soup prepared in its gullet and stomach, and which 

 it introduces drop by drop, as it were, into its throat. But 

 when its nursling is pretty well grown, it places its bill within 

 its mouth and disgorges the fish either entire or in fragments. 

 They never carry fish to the rock in their bills. '^ The cry of 

 the young bird is a shrill squeak, while that of the old bird is 

 hoarse and resembles the syllables " carra carra^' or " kurra 

 kurra" rapidly repeated. From one to two thousand of the 

 young birds are killed annually for sale, and, after being plucked, 

 obtain a price of from sixpence to a shilling each. Formerly, 

 when they were held in greater value, they used to fetch consi- 

 derably more : thus we find that in Ray^s time they cost Is. 8d. 

 apiece. At one time they figured at the tables of the Scottish 



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