FOOD AND FISHING 405 



Gannets and other birds make upon them from above, 

 as well as large fish from below, he continues : — 



" I believe I have more than once seen thousands of 

 Gulls, Terns, Guillemots, Skuas, Razorbills and Gannets 

 mixed up in wild confusion, biting right and left, and feeding 

 on these little innocents ; and at the same time such 

 screaming, shrieking and croaking going on by each bird, 

 according to its kind, that I have thought the sounds at 

 ancient Babel must have been music compared to this selfish 

 frenzy. At such times it is interesting to note the Gannets. 

 Such of them as have crammed themselves full may be seen 

 quietly lying on the water outside the melee, and those that 

 want more are circling in the air, waiting for a break to 

 be seen among the birds, or for the fish to roll a little on one 

 side of them, and when either happens the Gannet at once 

 gives the warning that he is coming, by issuing loud guttural 

 croaks, and sad is the fate of the band that do not know its 

 meaning."* 



A scene such as Mr. Dunn describes may possibly have 

 given rise to Mrs. H. Blackburn's clever sketch of a fiock of 

 Gannets attacking a shoal off Ailsa Craig. 



Another Cornish naturalist, the late Mr. Jonathan Couch, 

 remarks : " When Pilchards are collected into a narrow space, 

 the number and eagerness of the Gannets are such, that it is 



* " Land and Water," January 20tli, 1877. 



