368 THE GANNET 



It has been proved that both sexes feed the young.* 

 What a young Gannet is Hke in the first or early nesthng 

 stage is here shown by a coloured plate of a very young 

 one, of which the down, it will be seen, has already begun to 

 grow, indicating that it is of the age of about four days. The 

 painting was in the first instance taken, in 1865, from a 

 nestling while still alive, by Dr. R. O. Cunningham (to 

 illustrate his valuable article before referred to), and 

 subsequently repainted by the celebrated artist Joseph 

 Wolf.f It will be observed how distinctly this picture 

 shows the bluntness of beak, which is a character of the 

 Gannet-chick when hatched. It also just shows the scale 

 or nodule at the end of the upper mandible with which 

 the nestling probably prizes open the egg. This little scale, 

 which has been termed an egg-tooth, is very tough and 

 does not fall off until the young Gannet is as big as a 

 pigeon, or bigger, although no other use is made of it, that 

 we are aware of. 



I spent a good deal of time watching the young Gannets 

 in their nests at the Bass Rock. Some of them lay so still, 

 and in such prostrate attitudes, with neck stretched out and 



* See p. 60. 



t For " The Ibis" (1860, PI. I.). The original was given to me by the 

 then Editor, Professor Newton, and is reproduced witli the sanction of the 

 President and present Editor. 



