LITTLE SKELLIG 69 



mackerel quest. Some are still building, and they fly 

 within a few feet of our boat, with long strings of seaweed 

 in their beaks. Evidently our approach is resented, for 

 many come to meet us screaming with an incessant 

 ' Carack ! Carack ! ' ... Gannets' nests are everywhere, 

 and each ledge and flat is lined with them. The nest is a 

 circular mass of grass and seaweed, from 12 inches to 15 

 inches in diameter, and some are as much as 18 inches 

 in height, the gradual accumulation of years. They 

 lay one egg only, which at flrst is a bluish-white, but 

 soon becomes soiled, for the Gannet is not a cleanly 

 bird in its domestic arrangements, although its toilet 

 is all that could be desired. The head and neck of the 

 adult bird are tinged with pale buff colour, body and 

 wings spotlessly white, with the exception of the primaries, 

 which are black ; their length from beak to tip of tail about 

 3 feet, and with wings extended they measure 4 feet 

 [query 6 feet ?] across. Very loth were they to leave their 

 nests, and allowed us to approach within a few feet, when 

 they would hastily disgorge a decapitated mackerel or 

 gurnet, sometimes two or three partially digested, but in 

 every case the heads had been disposed of. . . ." A. D. 

 Sapsworth {I.e., 1896). 



Nowhere do Gannets by choice breed far from a precipice, 

 because their readiest way of taking flight is to let themselves 



