MORTALITY AMONG GANNETS 433 



out that the Gannet is an eminently sluggish bird, a quality 

 arising from its being either naturally sleepy or very deaf. 

 There is an inherent sluggishness in all the species of the 

 genus Sula — whereby some of them have earned the 

 name of Booby (Portuguese hoho = a fool) — and hence, 

 through their own inertness, they are often exposed to 

 danger. Of this inertness it would be easy to quote many 

 examples, but one will suffice, which occurred at sea : — 

 "July 19th, 1904 We found an adult Gannet asleep on 

 the water, which was calm, which we tried to catch with 

 a landing-net, but when the boat (a good-sized sailing 

 craft) was within a few yards, it awoke and flew away " 

 (J.H.G. Journal), Wherever there are Gannets, fisher- 

 men are familiar with incidents such as this, yet they 

 can never give a satisfactory explanation of these sleepy 

 Gannets Some, like John MacGillivray, and H. C. Miiller 

 the Fseroese naturalist, think that it arises from over- 

 feeding, but a hearty meal had no such soporific effect 

 on my tame Gannets. Perhaps what we take for 

 sluggishness may be only the result of deafness, for the 

 orifice of a Gannet's ear is very small, covered with 

 feathers, and reducible to the size of a pin's head by 

 muscular contraction.* Whatever be the cause of this 



* As I have obsorvod wlioii liolding a live one ; the Cormorant's is not 

 much larger. 



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