488 THE GANNET 



the young ones: "September 16th, 1901. Six hundred 

 [young Gannets] caught, mostly ready to fly, only one 

 in partly down plumage. One of these young ones had 

 an entirely white breast and belly, bill and feet normal. 

 A bird like this is found every year at one spot in the 

 breeding place (Myggenaes Stacks)."* Mr. W. E. Clarke 

 has drawn my attention to a young Gannet of about six 

 months with the under-parts (breast and abdomen) nearly 

 white, in the Royal Scottish Museum ; it was shot near the 

 Bass, on September 4th, 1894, and may resemble those 

 recorded by Andersen, being I should say, an instance of 

 incipient albinism.! 



* I am indebted to Mr. C. B. Ticehurst for valuable extracts from 

 Andersen's " Meddelelser cm Foeroernes Fugle," and from the writings of 

 Governor H. C. Miiller (1862), with translations of the above, and other 



t In July, 1910, a Gannet with a brown head and neck, and its beak 

 dappled with brown, created too much sensation at the Bass Rock to 

 be here passed over without remark. It was first seen by Mr. J. 

 Atkinson on July 14th on the wing, and on the 31st that gentleman 

 and Mr. Riley Fortime located its nest. It was not at all shy, and 

 several photographs were taken of it by these observers, three of 

 which — all slightly different — were subsequently published in "Coimtry 

 Life" (Sept. 3rd, 1910), "British Birds" Magazine (p. 1.53), "Country 

 Life" (Dec. 24th), and "The Zoologist" (1911, p. 73). At first its 

 brown colour was attributed to an accidental and most imusual 

 variation from the normal plmnage, but subsequent enquiry left little 

 doubt that it had been artificially coloured with brown paint. It is 

 however only fair to say that this is by no means the view taken of this 

 anomalous Gannet by Mr. Fortune {see " The Zoologist," 1911, p. 386). 

 The chief argmnent against its being a natural variety, is that there does 



