GANNET. 157 



the most western of the group, where the 25th of January 

 is a festival in consequence of the arrival of this bird. In 

 Iceland it has several breeding-places ; and thousands nest 

 on the Magdalene Islands, and some other rocks in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence. Its winter range extends over the North 

 Atlantic down to North Africa and Madeira on this side, and 

 the Gulf of Mexico on the other ; but it seldom enters the 

 Baltic or goes far up the Mediterranean. After stormy 

 weather it has occasionally been taken at a considerable dis- 

 tance inland. In Africa, from Angola southward, the place 

 of our bird is taken by S. capensis, which has a nearly black 

 tail ; and it is in the Southern Hemisphere that the genus 

 is best represented. 



The Gannets at the Bass Rock have been frequently de- 

 scribed, but by few so fully as by Mr. E. F. Booth of 

 Brighton, in his ' Rough Notes,' pt. v., with six beautiful 

 coloured illustrations, after drawings by Mr. E. Neale, 

 showing the successive stages of plumage. The Gannets 

 assemble in March, and an egg was once laid by the end 

 of that month, but as a rule incubation does not com- 

 mence until the early part of May. Owing to interference 

 from sight-seers, the birds have to some extent retired 

 from the more accessible portions, but it does not appear 

 that there is any material falling off in the number on the 

 Rock, although fewer young are annually collected than 

 formerly, when from 1,500 to 2,000 have been taken ; now 

 the average is about 800. The beginning of August is the 

 usual time for the " harvest," the young birds being hooked 

 up, killed, and thrown into the sea, where a boat is in wait- 

 ing to pick up the bodies. These are plucked, cleaned, and 

 half-roasted, after which they are sold at from eightpence to 

 a shilling each ; but the Editor was told by the landlord of 

 the inn at Canty Bay, who rents the Bass, that the old race 

 of " goose " eaters was dying out, and there would soon 

 be few left who could relish a " goose " on its merits ; the 

 majority buying the birds in ignorance of what they were, and 

 because they yielded a good deal of food for the price. The 

 fat is boiled down into oil, and the feathers, after being well 



