302 



GANNET 



most useful in indicating to fishermen) to a great distance from land. 

 Their prey is almost invariably captured by plunging upon it from 

 a height, and a company of Gannets fishing presents a curious and 

 interesting spectacle. Flying in single file, each bird, when it comes 

 over the shoal, closes its wings and dashes perpendicularly, and 



Gannet, or Solan Goose. 



with a velocity that must be seen to be appreciated, into the waves, 

 whence it emerges after a few seconds, and, shaking the water from 

 its feathers, mounts in a wide curve, orderly taking its place in the 

 rear of the string, to repeat its headlong plunge so soon as it again 

 finds itself above its i^rey.-^ 



1 The large number of Gannets, and the vast quantity of lish they take, have 

 been frequently animadverted upon, but the computations on this last point are 



