CHAPTER XVII. 



MORTALITY AMONG GANNETS, AND LIABILITY TO 

 ACCIDENTS. 



The Liability of all Birds to Accidents — Causes of Death in 

 Gannets — Is the Gannet an Increasing or a Stationary 

 Species ? — The Many Accidents to which Gannets are Liable — 

 Whilst in Lethargy — When Descending upon Prey — In 

 continuous Rough Weather — In Poggy Weather. 



The Liability of all Birds to Accidents. — The mortality 

 which goes on among birds must needs be very great — far 

 greater in truth than many people, who have not given 

 much thought to the question, realize. Birds have no 

 provident habits : they do not lay up stores of food for use 

 during times of scarcity, as some quadrupeds do* — on the 

 contrary, they are eminently wasteful of food when they 

 have it.t Probably almost as many birds perish annually 

 as are born. It is not too much to estimate that millions 

 must be destroyed, by violent deaths of one kind and 



* Some Woodpeckers, however, are said to store food, and Shrikes 

 return to prey which they have impaled. 



f Redwings, for instance, will divest a holly-trcio of far more berries than 

 they mean to eat, and those falling on the ground soon become hard and 

 useless. 



