GANNETS AS FOOD 455 



places they were not considered ripe for killing until Sejitember ; but 

 this would be the case anywhere where many eggs had been previously 

 taken. In 1906, I observed that very few young ones had left the 

 Bass Rock on the last day of August, but they were passing the stage 

 when considered to be fattest. 



Method of Talcing Old Gannets Adult Gannets were sometimes noosed 



(p. 133), but both at the Faeroes and St. Kilda, more generally captured 

 by hand at night (p. 132), which their deafness and the frontal position of 

 their eyes, always deeply bviried in the dorsal plumage, rendered easy. The 

 islanders considered them good for eating in the sjiring (p. 266), but after 

 the duties of incubation had conamenced they grew lean. As far as can 

 be ascertained now, adult Gannets were never used for food at the Bass 

 Rock, where it was always the policy of the tenant to protect them in 

 order to insure more young ones — a policy which was too often defeated 

 by the heartless conduct of many so-called sportsmen, who shot the 

 nesting birds from boats. This was not difficult, for the sight of a 

 wounded Gannet on the water would act like a decoy, and its cries soon 

 draw others to share the same fate. Gannets used to be taken by the 

 seaman's ruse of floating a small board, loaded enough to sink an inch or 

 two below the surface, whereon was nailed a herring. This was an 

 alluring bait, and if a Gannet pounced down, it would generally 

 perforate the board, or break its neck. It is curious that a dead fish 

 should have so much attraction for them, but so it is. This rather cruel 

 stratagem must be one of very old standing, many authors alluding to it, 

 although only one had seen it done — Mr. R. Gray (" Intellectual 

 Observer," 1864, p. 119). The first who mention the practice are Ray and 

 Willughby, writing in 1676, and they describe it as being a trap of the 

 Cornish fishermen, a fact which one of Ray's Itineraries shows that 

 they ascertained, when at Padstow in June, 1662 ("Memorials of Ray," 

 p. 18")). I once received a Gannet which had been captured in this way ; 

 the poor bird, though still alive and fairly strong, had lost one eye by 

 contact with the board on which it struck : but with a liberal supply of 

 fish, it lived for some years on my pond. 



Number of Gannets formerly Taken.— As regards the number of Gannets, 

 of which nine-tenths were young ones, formerly killed at the different 

 brooding stations annually, the following figures were at one time reached, 

 but prubably little, if at all, exceeded : — 



