334 THE GANNET 



it is only by close study that we have a chance of 

 fathoming it. 



Gannets — which, like nearly all other sea-fowl, are birds 

 of social predilections, and breed in large companies — 

 must needs return to their breeding-places early in the 

 spring, because their nursery operations are of the 

 longest, lasting over four months, that is, if we calculate 

 from the period of their commencing to build to the time 

 when the young bird essays its first flight from the rocks. 

 Accordingly they make their appearance about the end of 

 February at the Bass Rock and the other Scotch breeding- 

 places, fly a good many times around their accustomed 

 home, and, when March has set in, each one proceeds to 

 select its ledge and begin building. I can testify to there 

 being plenty of nests at the Bass by the beginning of March. 

 Amongst those who, from being on the spot, certainly 

 ought to know best, it is the common opinion that Gannets 

 pair for life ; but this belief has no other foundation than 

 the fact — admittedly a suggestive one — of precisely the 

 same rocks being occupied year after year. 



The Nest* — Nearly every Gannet's nest which has come 



* Caliology (Gr. Ka\i<i), or the study of Birds' -nests, is a subject which 

 has hardly received the attention it deserves at present. What marvellous 

 differences are there between the nests of birds, in size, in position, in 

 construction, between, for example, the nests of the Song-Thrush and 

 the Partridge, the Rook and the Woodpecker — to take only some of 



