HABITS OF THE GANNET 381 



however, there is nothing remarkable about the Gannet's 

 windpipe, from which these hoarse sounds proceed. Nor is 

 the syrinx, which is considered to be the voice organ of birds, 

 specially developed.* Gannets have another softer note, 

 already alluded to, which is rendered grog grog, and, 

 according to the historian of St. Kilda,f when they utter 

 this, it means " all safe, no cause for alarm," and on 

 hearing this welcome intimation from the sentinel, his 

 companions feel themselves at liberty to go to sleep again. { 

 Gannets have no call-note for their young, they have no 

 need of one.§ Whether the notes of the same species 

 of birds are alike in all countries is an open question. 

 To Mr. Bent's ear the Canadian Gannets seemed to say 

 " kurruck kurruck" which is not very different from the 

 rendering we have just had of the voices of British ones. 

 It may be added that the noise at a Gannet's breeding- 

 place is by no means all vocal, for a great deal of sound is 

 produced by their wings, of which the Ustener is very conscious 

 when one of these great birds comes swooping overhead, 



* The Syrinx of a Gannet is figured in " Proc. Zoological Soc," 1876 

 (Plate XXVIIL). 



t Martin, " Voyage to St. Kilda," p. 53. 



\ This tlie Rev. Neil Mackenzie confirms (" Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist.," 

 1905, p. 146). 



§ Guillemots, on the contrary, continue whistling to their young until 

 they are three parts grown, and so loudly as to be audible a long way off 

 on the water. 



