May, 1908.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 19 



in the plastic gum of its progenitors moulded into one solid 

 piece of mechanism. The Gannet is a bird that is apparently 

 indissolubly linked up with the past. Not only do we find the 

 evidences in the serrations of its beak, but. we also find that its 

 young in their immature state, when the wings, being devoid of 

 feathers, are covered with skin like our hands, crawl about on all 

 fours, using both legs, wings, and beak to propel themselves 

 along. They are also known as Solan or Solent Geese, and were 

 it not for the shape of its beak one might readily mistake it for 

 a goose, since they are about the same size and shape. Gener- 

 ically they are known to science as Sula, to which genus the 

 boobies belong. The Gannet is a booby par excellence, since 

 the brooding birds will let one approach close to them, and even 

 capture them, as they sit on their nests. One can walk through a 

 rookery amongst these birds, but not altogether with impunity, 

 because one has to be careful of their powerful beak, since they 

 peck at a person if approached too closely. It is indeed a pretty 

 sight to walk through the brooding birds and observe the long, 

 well-defined line of black of the primaries or large outer feathers 

 of the wings, sharply though pleasantly contrasting with their snow- 

 white plumage, whilst the delicate ochreous-buff colour of the head 

 and nape, blending with the greenish-coloured soft parts adjoining 

 the bill, with its bluish edgings, make a charming picture. How 

 loving, too, they are to one another ! What gentle affection is 

 shown when one of the birds returns home from a fishing trip. 

 Watch how they cuddle up their necks and utter subdued 

 cackling love notes as they caress each other. But, loving as 

 they are by nature, ihey resent any intrusion of their neighbours, 

 and by vigorously pecking any other Gannet that comes within 

 reach of their beak they intimate to them that they must keep in 

 their own back yard. As their nests are built very close to one 

 another this contingency frequently happens. However, the adult 

 birds are very kind to the young ones, and should a nestling 

 wander to an adjoining nest the old Gannet occupying it will 

 nestle down over it together with its own offspring. It is not 

 unusual to find two, and sometimes three, of the smaller nestlings 

 that have gone astray under one old bird, which seems quite 

 pleased with the addition to its family. The larv^ of a blowfly 

 were found swarming in the mouth and throat of two of the living 

 young Gannets. These unfortunate mites, as yet unfeathered, 

 would have been destroyed very soon had I not washed these 

 parasites out with sea water. The absence of their parents had 

 evidently given the blowfly an opportunity to lay its eggs in the 

 mouths of these helpless creatures. 



Well-defined tracks, consisting of nodules or excrescences on 

 the skin, denote the beginning of the feather forests, or pterylse, as 

 they are called, in the immature birds. Feathers do not grow 



