156 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
it wheels rapidly, and darts to the surface of the water in pursuit 
of prey ; and then again it soars so as to be lost to vision, its ele- 
vation alone being sufficient to distinguish it from all other sea 
birds. Sometimes it is seen 400 leagues from land; and yet it is 
said to return every night to its solitary roost. Its expanded 
pinions measure from end to end fourteen feet, a prodigious extent 
of wings, equalling or even surpassing that of the condor, the 
lordly bird of the loftiest Andes. Being unable to swim or dive, 
it seizes the flying-fish, that, springing out of the water to avoid 
Flying Fish. 
the jaws of the bonito, often falls a prey to the frigate-bird, or 
else it compels boobies or tropic birds to disgorge. On volcanic 
coasts it builds its nest in the crevices of the high cliffs, and on 
the low coral islands in the loftiest trees, In the Paumotu Group, 
Captain Wilkes saw whole groves covered with the nests of the 
frigate-bird. When the old birds flew away, they puffed up 
their red pouches to the size of a child’s head, so that it looked 
as if a large bladder full of blood was attached to their neck. 
The Gannet or Soland-goose (Sula Bassana) haunts the Bass 
Island, a high steep rock in the Frith of Forth, whose black 
precipices are painted with dazzling 
stripes of white guano, the product 
of the inconceivable number of birds 
which settle upon the weather-beaten 
ledges. The gannets incubate in the 
turf of the slopes above, and you may 
sit down by them and their great 
downy young while their mates hover 
over you with discordant screams and 
almost touch you with their outspread pinions. There is but one 
landing-place, and this sole entrance to the natural fastness is 
closed by a barred gate, proclaiming that man has taken pos- 
sezsion of the rock. Some years ago it was let at an annual rent 
Common Gannet. 
