348 THE GANNET 



when Gannets come in from the sea, instead of at once 

 ahghting, they generally spend some time in scanning the 

 ledges.* John Wolley thought their homing instinct was 

 occasionally at fault, for when at the Bass on June 10th, 

 1848, he saw " a Gannet alight by a nest on which 

 another was sitting, which then immediately left it and 

 waddled to a nest, at a couple of yards distance, containing 

 an egg and took its seat upon it, while the newly arrived 

 Gannet occupied the nest left."f Mr. Pike has also watched 

 a Gannet endeavouring to pull another Gannet away by the 

 beak from her nest, on which she had apparently sat down 

 by mistake. 



The Chick in its E^nhryonic Stage. — At present there are 

 many birds whose embryology has not been studied, yet 

 this is a period in the later stages of which the anatomist 

 may hope to find considerable variation of development, 

 and it is possible that there may be something unexpected 

 in Sulci. I have secured Mr. Edwin Wilson's services to 

 give an accurate drawing of a Gannet's egg, very near to 

 hatching, from which half the shell has been removed, 

 and this exhibits the appearance of the interior and 



* Guillemots, on the other hand, generally fly sti-aight to a particular 

 ledge without the smallest hesitation. 



f " Ootheca Wolleyana," II., p. 453. Instances to prove that birds do 

 not know their own eggs are cited in " The Indian Field" of April 12th, 

 1906. 



