GANNBT. 



293 



old birds I have seen (killed in April) resembled a 

 specimen examined by Mr. Longe, at Yarmouth, which 

 had the top of its head a beautiful yellow, with a patch 

 of the same colour on the breast similar to that on the 

 spoonbill. Young- birds occasionally follow the course 

 of the rivers, and have been killed as far inland as 

 Upton, Rockland, and Surlingham, and, in one instance, 

 according to Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, at Pulham, 

 near the south-east boundary of Norfolk, a still more 

 unlikely locality for such a bird. 



"In December, 1860, some twelve or fourteen gan- 

 nets, all killed off the coast, were brought to Watson, 

 the game dealer at Yarmouth, besides several others 

 sent to Norwich, for preservation about the same time, 

 preceding only by a few days the first severe frost of 

 that memorable winter. The Messrs. Paget also speak 

 of their appearance in some numbers after a heavy gale 

 in 1827." 



Judging from the numbers of these birds which have 

 been found far inland, or on the beach either in a dying 

 condition or washed up dead upon the shore, it would 

 seem that this species must be very susceptible to the 

 influence of continuous stormy weather ; it appears not 

 unlikely that, owing to the fish retiring to the less dis- 

 turbed waters at greater depths during stormy weather 

 those birds which search for their prey on the wing are 

 the first to succumb to the scarcity of food thus pro- 

 duced, and either perish or fly inland, when, in their 

 exhausted condition, they fall easy victims. Sir Thomas 

 Browne records two such instances : " A white, large, 

 and strong-billd fowle, called a Ganet, which seems to 

 be a greater sort of Lams ; whereof I met with one kild 

 by a greyhound, neere Swafi'ham ; another in marsh- 

 land, while it fought, and would not bee forced to take 

 wing ; another entangled in an herring-net, which, taken 

 aliue, was fed with herrings for a while." Two hundred 

 years later a similar scene was enacted at Bodney 

 Field, also near Swafi'ham, and probably not far dis- 

 tant from the scene of the first encounter, when, in 

 November, 1854, a gannet stoutly defended itself from 

 the attack of a sheep dog, and was killed by the 

 shepherd's boy with a stick. Miss Gurney records in 



