476 PLUMAGE 



sprout about the same time (photograph No. 2). As the 

 young Gannet increases in bulk, its beak grows 

 rapidly, not only getting larger but also more 

 pointed ; meanwhile the whole of the bare skin which 

 may be termed its face, remains quite dark (photograph 

 No. 3^ age about seven weeks). 



Plumage of the First Year. — The growth of the young 

 of most sea-birds is slow, but that of the young Gannet 

 is exceptionally slow. At nine weeks old the down is at 

 last nearly all covered up, and we have a bird of a blackish 

 slate-colour, flecked all over with little white spots (see the 

 photograph on p. 373). At about twelve weeks these white 

 spots (which are in reality triangular spots at the tips of 

 the feathers, extending over the body, head, and wings) 

 have increased both in size and number, not by the 

 addition of more feathers, but by further growth of feathers 

 already through, being especially numerous on the head. 

 This was so in a young Gannet picked up in York- 

 shire, believed to be twelve weeks old, which afterwards 

 lived nearly two years in captivity, and served for most 

 of the notes on plumage which follow.* 



At what I considered to be four months old, the white 



* It was found at some distance inland, with an injured wing, on 

 September 29th, 1906, and taken to Mr. W. H. St. Quintin, from whom 

 it was received on October 1st. It must be understood that its age was 

 conjectural, but I am pretty sure that it was not less than ten weeks old. 



