THE NESTLING 361 



of rupturing the inner membrane, mere pressure being 

 afterwards sufficient to chip the shell. This is invariably 

 efifected at the broad end, a little deeper than one would cut 

 a breakfast egg. The chipping was continued slowly, bit by 

 bit ; first a small portion of the tough membrane was 

 rippad, then the opposing shell pressed out. After a short 

 rest, the bird wriggled a little further round— the bill always 

 in view — and again renewed the attack, until fully two- 

 thirds of the circumference had been cut. The claws of 

 one of the feet now made their appearance over the lower 

 edge of the fracture, and, by dint of pressure of the whole 

 body, the remaining third of the shell was snapped, and out 

 tumbled a black, sprawling object, helpless, blind, bare as 

 the palm of one's hand, and whining like a puppy dog." 



Under normal conditions a nestling Gannet emerges from 

 its egg at the end of June, blind and bald, with small feet, a 

 large head, and mouth of a dark bluish-grey, and, as 

 stated in the preceding extracts, in twenty-four hours it 

 has gained strength enough to stretch its wings ; on the 

 eighth day its eyes are open, and by the ninth it can 

 squall vigorously.* For the first week of its existence 

 it is treated as an egg would be, by its parents, that is to 



* A young Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchus) can make a noise much 

 sooner than that, according to Mr. F. M. Chapman's observations in 

 " Bird Studies " (p. 207), for it begins "to bark " as soon as it has made an 

 opening in the shell. 



