GANNET. 883 



west side of the island, will allow themselves to be stroked by 

 the hand without resistance, or any show even of impatience, 

 except a low guttural note." 



The birds form their nests of a mass of weeds and grass, 

 upon which they deposit a single egg, which, when first laid, 

 is of a chalky white, tinged with pale blue, but soon becomes 

 soiled ; the length is three inches three lines, by one inch 

 and ten lines in breadth. The changes between black and 

 white these birds undergo are very curious. From the white 

 egg the young one is excluded with a smooth and naked 

 bluish-black skin, which soon becomes covered with a white 

 down ; this growing rapidly is soon very thick, giving them 

 the appearance of large powder puffs, or masses of cotton. 

 Through this white down their first true feathers issue, and 

 these are black, to be followed by the adult plumage which 

 is again white. 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 Ciupea, it will be 

 recollected, swim near the surface. On quitting their north- 

 ern 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 different man- 

 ner 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."" Gannets attracted to 

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



