GANNET. 159 



not so obvious. By some of the earlier writers the word was 

 derived from the Latin solea, in consequence of the bird's 

 supposed habit of hatching its egg with its foot ! In the 

 2nd and 3rd Editions of the present work, the Author sug- 

 gested in a foot-note " Solent or Channel Goose " as its mean- 

 ing ; but, as remarked by the editor of * The Ibis' for 1866, 

 in a foot-note to Dr. Cunningham's paper, it seems at least 

 as probable that the " Solent" took its name from the bird. 



Gannets feed exclusively upon fish, and being birds of 

 great powers of flight, they take a very wide range over the 

 sea in search of food. Shoals of herrings, pilchards, or 

 sprats, appear to have the greatest attraction for them, and 

 all the species of the genus Clupea, it will be recollected, 

 swim near the surface. On quitting their northern breeding- 

 stations in autumn, many of these birds take a southern 

 direction. Off the Cornish coast, Mr. Couch says in his 

 Fauna, " Adult birds are most abundant in autumn and 

 winter, fishermen learning by the actions of these birds when 

 shoals of pilchards are present, and the direction they are 

 pursuing. The Gannet takes its prey in a difierent manner 

 from any other of our aquatic birds ; for traversing the air 

 in all directions, as soon as it discovers the fish, it rises to 

 such a height as experience shows best calculated to carry it 

 by a downward motion to the required depth ; and then par- 

 tially closing its wings, it falls perpendicularly on the prey, 

 and rarely without success, the time between the plunge and 

 emersion being -about fifteen seconds." Mr. Booth, how- 

 ever, found that his young Gannets from the Bass Rock, 

 where pilchards are not known, would not willingly eat 

 that fish, rejecting it when thrown to them with herrings, 

 which, with mackerel, formed their favourite food. In 

 autumn and winter, off the coast of Cornwall, this species 

 feeds largely on sprats and anchovies. Gannets attracted 

 to the same shoal, and fishing in company, are frequently 

 caught in considerable numbers by becoming entangled in 

 the meshes of the fishermen's long sea-nets. 



Two Gannets taken from the Bass on the 19th August, 

 1874, paired and made a nest in a shed in Mr. Booth's 



