326 THE GANNET 



Huge flocks of birds are very deceptive, and at first sight 

 they are apt to appear larger than they really are. 

 Assuredly a thousand big white birds cannot fail to make 

 a great show, especially if they are on the wing. The 

 incessant motion of so many pinions is trying to the eye, 

 and I am positive that to some persons it is very delusive — 

 producing a sort of kaleidoscopic effect. Even a number 

 of birds when they are at rest are misleading enough for 

 an experienced naturalist to greatly overrate them ; let 

 those who disbelieve it ask some friend to look at seven or 

 eight hundred dots of ink — which have been previously 

 counted — spread out on a large sheet of paper, and then 

 make him guess how many there are : the guess will 

 generally be quite wide of the mark, according to my 

 experience. 



Whatever the real number of Gannets may be — and 

 probably it will ever remain a matter of conjecture — this 

 much is certain, that they are essentially British birds, 

 and that to the British Isles three-quarters of them belong 

 by right of tenure of eight breeding-places, 



A comparison of the abundance of Gannets ivith that of 

 other sea-birds. — Although it is somewhat foreign to the 

 present treatise, which is about Gannets, to dilate on 

 other birds, yet I must take leave to digress a little for the 

 purpose of drawing a few comparisons between the Gannet 



