156 PELECANIDiE. 



and throat naked. Nostrils basal, obliterated. Legs short, strong, placed rather 

 backward ; three toes in front, one behind, articulated to the inner surface of the 

 tarsus, all four toes united by membrane ; claw of the middle toe pectinated. 

 Wings long, first quill-feather the longest. Tail cuneiform. 



The Gannet is a constant resident on our coast, but with 

 considerable change of locality, depending on the season of 

 the year. The only breeding-station in England is on Lundy 

 Island, which would appear from Leland to have been occu- 

 pied by this species in the time of Edward II., and Drayton 

 alludes to it in his ' Polyolbion,' Song 4. In spite of the 

 protection afforded by the proprietor, few birds succeed in 

 rearing their j'oung there ; and more than twenty years ago, 

 a colony, supposed to be an off-shoot from Lundy, established 

 itself on an island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, in Wales, 

 where it still thrives. 



In Scotland the breeding-places of this species are more 

 numerous. On the east coast the only one is the well-known 

 Bass Eock ; but on the west side there are four, namely : 

 Ailsa Craig ; the islet of Borrera, close to St. Kilda ; the 

 island of Sula Sgeir, or North Barra, on which from 2,000 to 

 3,000 birds are sometimes taken in a season ; and the Stack 

 of Suleskerry, about forty miles west of Stromness, in Ork- 

 ney. From Ailsa Craig the birds disperse themselves in 

 the daytime along the neighbouring Scottish coast, and also 

 visit the northern shores of Ireland with great regularity. 

 From the highest point of Rathlin Island, off Antrim, the 

 Editor has watched a continuous stream of birds coming 

 from the Craig in the early morning, and by following it up, 

 the eye was directed to the position of the rock, which is 

 upwards of forty miles distant. 



In Ireland Sir R. Payne Gallwey says that from 300 to 

 400 birds nest on the Little Skellig, off the coast of Kerry ; 

 the species also breeds on the Fastnet Rock, off Cape Clear, 

 and numerously on the Bull Rock at the entrance of Bantry 

 Bay. The * Stags ' (i.e. Stacks) of Broadhaven, off the coast 

 of Mayo, on which the bird formerly bred, are now aban- 

 doned. 



In the Fffiroe Islands the Gannet breeds on Myggenaes, 



