174 . TOTIPALMATE SWIMMERS — STEGANOPODES. 



the common Funis digitatus and other fucoids. They are built in the form of a flat- 

 tened cone, with a base twenty inches in diameter, and with a shallow terminal 

 cavity. The birds are said to exhibit great industry in collecting the materials, tear- 

 ing up grass and turf with their powerful bills, and in the process engaging in fre- 

 quent conflicts. The Gannet lays but a single egg; and if this be removed it is 

 replaced by another. It is described as being elliptical in form, with a rough, dull- 

 white surface — originally white, but almost always more or less patched and stained 

 with a yellowish brown. 



It is said that the albumen of this egg does not become white when it is boiled, 

 but remains clear and colorless. The egg is subject to rough usage ; for the bird, in 

 alighting, or when disturbed by human visitors, tosses it about or stands upon it. 

 This habit has given rise to the assertion that the egg is hatched by the bird's 

 feet. At the time of Macgillivray's visit the Gannets would allow a person to 

 approach within three feet, and sometimes so near that they could be touched. When 

 any one approached they merely opened their bills and uttered their usual cry, or rose 

 to their feet, expressing some degree of resentment, but none of alarm. Dr. Cun- 

 ningham, however, had a very different experience when he visited the island. The 

 old birds manifested every symptom of displeasure. Even a young one, only a few 

 weeks old, squeaked angrily, and made impotent demonstrations of self-defence with 

 its soft bill. 



Professor Jones, in a note to the St. John's "Natural History and Sport," in 

 Moray, mentions an instance wherein a man, who had ventured to meddle witli a 

 young Gannet in the downy state, was attacked by the infuriated parent, who made 

 a swoop at his face, and caught him violently by the nose. This bird is capable of 

 inflicting a very severe bite with the razor-like edges of its mandibles. 



In descending from the cliffs into the water, the Gannet usually utters a single 

 plaintive cry, performs a curve, shakes its tail or the whole plumage, and draws the 

 feet backward. When it flies, the body, tail, neck, and bill are nearly in a straight 

 line ; the wings are extended, and never brought close to the body, and it moves by 

 regular flappings, alternating witli regular sailings. In alighting, it ascends in a long 

 curve, keeps the feet spread, and comes down rather heavily. It has considerable 

 difficulty, when on low ground, in taking wing; and when found inland, in places 

 unfavorable for flight, is occasionally taken alive. 



The great power of dilatation possessed by its oesophagus enables this bird to 

 swallow fish of very considerable dimensions. Its food consists of fish of various 

 kinds — chiefly herring. Its power of digestion is very great. It is very greedy, 

 and occasionally becomes so gorged with food as to be unable to rise from the surface 

 of the water, and may then be easily captured. 



The old bird feeds her offspring with partially digested fish, which is prepared in 

 her stomach, and introduced little by little into the throat of the young bird ; and 

 when the latter is well advanced in growth, it inserts its own bill within the parent's 

 mouth, and receives the fragments the latter disgorges. The cry of the young bird 

 is a shrill squeak, while that of the old bird is hoarse, and resembles the words kuma, 

 kuma, repeated rapidly. 



Dr. Cunningham states that from one to two thousand of the 3'oung birds of this 

 species are annually killed for sale ; although they are not now held in such high 

 value as formerly, when they figured at the tables of even the Scottish monarchs. 

 Their consumption is now confined to the lower classes. 



Ailsa Craig, an island composed of columnar trap, of a conical form, and eleven 

 hundred feet in height, in the Firth of Clyde, is an important breeding-place of the 



