402 THE GANNET 



good moon, Lord Lilford has watched them hard at work 

 on the coast of Spain,* but they can hardly go on diving 

 when it is dark. 



I recall one fine September day when six adult Gannets 

 were plunging, possibly for sand-eels, off North Berwick, 

 about a quarter of a mile from the shore. I found, by the 

 minute-hand of my watch, that they only remained from five 

 to ten seconds under water, sometimes less than that, 

 showing the power this bird has of arresting itself when 

 diving. Their plunges were so continual as to be often 

 at the rate of three drops in five minutes. Perhaps it 

 was near this same spot that John Major had been 

 struck with their industry in the fifteenth century, as 

 he lived near by, " In capiendis piscibus mirabilis est 

 hujus avis industria." In these words the old historian 

 stated a fact which is patent to everyone who watches 

 Gannets and their mode of feeding, — a mode which in Saxon 

 times furnished an appropriate emblem for the sea — 

 janotej" baeS (the Gannet's bath). Few birds work harder 

 for their livelihood, for many of their dives are failures. 



There is still one action when they are fishing which calls 

 for notice : now and then the Gannet will almost throw 

 itself on its back in the air, when in the act of descending 

 upon a fish. Quaint old Martin, who did not pass this 



* " British Birds," VII., p. 10. 



