280 THE GANNET 



the}^ have filled their gullets, they fly in measured flight to 

 their young. They fly more quickly than seagulls and 

 often with an undulating flight like the stork. At the end 

 of August, — on Grimsoe not until Michaelmas, — the young 

 are fully feathered and almost as large and much fatter 

 than the old birds. The inhabitants then capture as many 

 as they can and salt them down. While in the nest their 

 feathers are black, with separate white spots. This colouring 

 passes gradually into yellowish white, first on the head, 

 neck, breast and underside of the body, next on the back 

 and smaller (covert) feathers of the wing and tail, and finally 

 on the middle tail feathers and the larger inner wing 

 feathers (quills). In the fourth summer (including, as 

 always, the year of birth), the bird is mature and in full 

 feather. In the beginning of October, young and old dis- 

 appear from the birth- and breeding-places and remain 

 throughout the winter on the coast, by the open sea. With 

 their beaks tucked under their wings, they drift on the sea, 

 sleeping so soundly that they are scarcely awakened by 

 a ship sailing past. They are not only always greatly 

 tormented by lice, especially in the nest, but are also some- 

 times attacked by an infectious disease which destroys 

 countless numbers which drift, dead, on to the shore." 



I have not elsewhere met with any account of Gannets 

 dying from disease, but continued rough weather, by 



