BIRDS. 



291 



The elaborate provision made for the buoj'^aney of birds is 

 so remarkable a characteristic of their structure, that we shall 

 bring forward another example of its perfection in the tJannet 

 or Solan Goose {Sula bassana, Fig. 2-15), of our own shores. 



Fig. 245.— Gannet. 



This bird is very abundant in Norway and in the Hebrides ; 

 and, farther south, the Craig of Ailsa, the island of St. Kilda, 

 and the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, are favourite 

 breeding-places. So great are their numbers that the inhabi- 

 tants of St. Kilda, according to Martin, consume annually 

 22,000 young birds of this species as food, besides an immense 

 quantity of the eggs.* In more remote localities, the birds are 

 not less numerous. 



The Gaimet, when searching for food, flies a short way 

 above the suface of the water, and, on seeing a fish, rises into 

 the air, and deecends with such raj)idity and force as to secure 

 its prey. Some idea of the ])owcr of its descent may be formed 

 from a circumstance related by Peiniant. One of these birds, 

 flying over Penzance, saw some pilchards spread out upon a 



* Buchanan, in his View of the Fishery of Great Britain, conjecture? that 

 the Gannets of St. Kilda destroy, annually, one hundred and (he millions of 

 herrings. In Sir Walter Scott's " Antiquary," tliLs bird is mentioned as 

 "tife relishing Solan Goose, whose smell is so powerful that he is never 

 cooked within doors." The figure of this bird (Fig. 245), and that of the 

 Diver (Fig. 281), ars copied from Yarrell. 



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