SHAG.— GANNET. 307 



I understand there are not many Shags now in the Isle 

 of Wight, where they were formerly in considerable numbers, 

 on the Culvers at one end, and on the Needles at the other. 

 An immature specimen was shot at Rottingdean, in November 

 1890, and jireserved by Mr. Pratt. Mr. Booth, speaking of 

 nests which he had examined on the west coast of Ross-shire, 

 says in his ' Rough Notes,' that they were composed of 

 heather-stalks and smaller twigs, with stems of ferns and 

 other plants, closely interwoven, with a cup-shaped lining of 

 coarse strands of grass and rushes. It does not, however, 

 breed in Sussex. Mr. Knox (O. R. p. 251) observes that he 

 had seen one or two examples, immature, which were killed 

 at Pagliam Harbour during the hard winter of 1838-9. 



GANNET, OR SOLAN GOOSE. 

 8ula bassana. 



A CONSIDERABLE uumbcr of Gannets visit the Channel in 

 winter, generally some eight or ten miles out at sea, seldom 

 approaching the land, except in very severe storms ; the 

 greater part of them are immature. I think that in their 

 natural state they feed entirely upon fish, the herring and the 

 sprat being preferred. They are extremely voracious, and 

 will take as many as seven or eight large herrings at a meal ; 

 the elasticity of the throat is so great that, as I was informed 

 by Mr. Booth, one of those which he had in confinement 

 swallowed a Guillemot. Its principal breeding places in 

 Britain are Ailsa Craig, in the Firth of Clyde, Souliskerry, 

 in the Orkneys, the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, and 

 St. Kilda. 



When at liberty, they take their food by plunging down 

 upon it from a vast height, not by diving, though they do 



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