558 PELECANID^J. 



rarely found on inland lakes ; its food and method of 

 obtaining it are precisely similar, so that a description of 

 one bird will suit the other almost equally well. The 

 Shag is called sometimes the Green Cormorant, from the 

 tint of its plumage ; but this name is not in common use. 

 Another of its names is the Crested Cormorant ; but this 

 is vague, inasmuch as both species are crested in spring. 

 In Scotland a common name for it is Scart, applied also 

 to the Great Cormorant. 



THE GANNET. 



SULA ALBA. 



Crown buff-yellow ; general plumage milk-white ; quills black ; bill bluish grey 

 at the base, white at the tip ; orbits pale blue ; membrane prolonged from the 

 gape and that under the throat dusky blue ; irides yellow ; feet striped 

 with green, the membranes dusky; claws white. Birds of the first year, 

 general plumage dusky brown, beneath greyish. In the second year, greyish 

 black above, marked with numerous triangular white spots, whitish below. 

 Length three feet. Eggs dull greenish white. 



IT would not be difficult to compile, from various sources, 

 a description of the Gannet and its habits, which would- 

 fill more pages than my readers, perhaps, would care to 

 peruse. To avoid this contingency, I will limit myself to 

 a statement of my own personal acquaintance with the 

 bird and its ways, and a transcript of notes kindly fur- 

 nished me by a friend who visited the Bass Eock, one of 

 its favourite haunts in the breeding season. 



Extract from my own Journal. "August 27th. I lay 

 for a long time to-day on the thick herbage which crowns 

 the splendid cliffs, 'the Gobbins/ near the entrance of 

 Belfast Lough, watching through a telescope the proceed- 

 ings of some Gannets, or Solan Geese. This bird, which 

 is allied to the Pelicans rather than the Geese, is of a 

 large size, much bigger than a Gull, from which, also, it 

 may be distinguished at a distance by its greater length of 

 neck, the intense whiteness of its plumage, and the black 



