DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 183 
such close companionship leads to not a few battles 
between the birds themselves. Indeed, a sort of 
guerilla warfare is being waged constantly, and is 
by no means one of the least interesting features of 
the never-to-be-forgotten scene. The nest of the 
Gannet possesses little architectural beauty, and is 
generally so trodden out of shape as to resemble a 
mere heaped mass of rubbish, caked together with 
droppings, and slime, and filth, giving off an almost 
unbearable stench, especially on a calm hot day in 
May or June. Seaweed, masses of turf, straws, 
moss, and stalks of marine plants are the principal 
materials. The nest is shaped like a flattened cone, 
the cavity at the top being shallow. It is no unusual 
thing to see the birds adding to their nests, even 
when incubation is in progress. The Gannet lays 
but a single egg, but if this be taken—as it often 
is, especially in colonies easily accessible to man— 
the bird will replace it several times in succession. 
It is pale bluish-green, but generally so thickly 
coated with chalky matter—and later with stains— 
as to hide all trace of this colour. There are few 
more noisy animated scenes in bird life than a Gannet 
colony, during the height of the breeding season, 
The stirring sight once witnessed can never be 
forgotten. The air, for many yards from the face of 
the cliffs and high above it, is filled with thousands 
of flying Gannets; every available spot, on the 
edges and face of the rock itself, is occupied by a 
Gannet, the standing birds vieing with each other in 
