DIVING AND FLIGHT 411 



there, who believes that Guillemots have been taken at 

 even greater depths than that.* 



The evidence furnished by Mr. Girvan and Mr. Leckie 

 as to Gannets is further supported by Mr. McCoskindale, 

 of Campbeltown, on the authority of fishermen. These 

 men also relate that when Gannets are brought up alive, 

 they will often eject four or five live fish, which sometimes 

 swim away none the worse for their confinement ! 



It will be observed that Mr. Leckie gives ninety feet as 

 the greatest depth known to him at which a Gannet has been 

 netted, and a hundred and twenty feet for a Guillemot, 

 but even this latter figure is considerably short of the 

 hundred and eighty feet vouched for by Mr. Thompson's 

 correspondent. Granted that the diving powers of sea-birds 

 are marvellous, yet it is difficult to conceive that a Gannet 

 could force its way against the pressure of water to the depth 

 of a hundred and eighty feet, and most ornithologists 

 will agree with Professor Cunningham in regarding it as 

 an impossibility, t 



Sivimming of the Gannet.- — Not only is the Gannet a great 

 diver, but also it is an exceedingly strong swimmer. Owing 



* In the " Zoologist " for 1902 we are told (p. 427) of Guillemots being 

 often taken in cod -nets in Loch Striven at a depth of one hundred and 

 eighty feet ; that these birds are very great divers is certain, but sixty 

 yards is a long way for them to penetrate below the surface, 



t " Ibis," 1866, p. 18, 



