Pelicans.] 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



67 



any apparent motion of the wings, but sometimes 

 dait onwards by a succession of rapid impulsive 

 movements, cleavinE: the air with great velocity. 

 On the appearance of a vessel, they generally make 

 towards it, sail round and round it, and then shoot 

 away, to give chase to their finny prey. 



It is seldom that these birds are seen many degrees 

 beyond the tropics, though occasionally they are 

 driven out of the limits of their ordinary range by 

 storms. The tropic bird rarely, if ever, settles on 

 the water ; but usually returns to its roosting-place 

 in the evening, where it perches on trees or craggy 

 rocks. In serene weather it is sometimes observed 

 to settle on the backs of drowsy turtles, sunning 

 themselves at the surface of the water. Though, as 

 we have said, these birds usually visit their rocky 

 resting-places in the evening, yet in latitudes remote 

 from land they keep during the night, as well as the 

 day, upon the wing. Lesson heard them often over- 

 head in fine calm tropical nights, still pursuing, un- 

 wearied, their rapid course. According to Catesby, 

 they breed on the inaccessible cliffs of the Bermudas, 

 and in great numbers on some little islands at the 

 end of Porto Rico. They are abundant near the 

 islands of Bourhon and Mauritius. The natives of 

 some of the islands within the tropics use the two 

 long tail-feathers as ornaments of dress. 



The general colour of the tropic bird is white, 

 variegated with curved lines of black on the back : 

 marks of black across some of the quill-feathers, 

 and a circle of the same round the eye, ending in a 

 point near the occiput ; bill fine red ; legs ver- 

 milion. Total length, excluding the long, slender 

 tail-feathers, about eighteen inches. The Red-tailed 

 Tropic Bird (Phaeton phaenicurus) is a distinct spe- 

 cies, and more common in the intertropics of the 

 Great Pacific, while the present species frequents 

 more abundantly those of the Atlantic Ocean. 



2060.— The Gannet 



(Sula Bussana). Fou de Bassan of the French ; 

 Solend-Gans, or Schotten-Gans of the Germans ; 

 Gans of the ancient British ; Solan and Soland 

 Goose, English. 



In the genus Sula, the bill is long, thick at the 

 base, and tapering to a sharp point ; the edges are 

 denticulated with serrations directed backwards ; 

 beneath the under mandible the skin is naked 

 and dilatabie ; space round the eyes naked ; tail 

 graduated ; claw of middle toe pectonated. 



Gifted with unwearied powers of wing, the gannet 

 soars over the ocean, surveying its surface with a 

 piercing glance, and darting down with more than 

 arrow-like rapidity on the fish which has unwarily 

 approached the surface. This extraordinary bird is 

 distributed over the Arctic regions of the Old and 

 New World; in Europe, the shores of Norway and 

 the Hebrides are their strongholds; the Bass Rock 

 at the entrance of the Frith of Forth, the Isle of 

 Ailsa at the mouth of the Frith of Clyde, St. Kilda, 

 the Skelig Isles on the Irish coast, and others, are 

 their annual breeding resorts. They are numerous 

 in Iceland, and are found on the coast of Newfound- 

 land, and on the north-west coast of America. 



The gannet is migratory, arriving at the Bass 

 and other places of resort about the end of March, 

 in vast flocks, for the purpose of incubation. 

 Thousands incubate in harmony together: the nest 

 is composed of withered grasses and sun-dried sea- 

 weeds, and, according to Mr. Selby, the female 

 lays only a single egg, not two, as is stated by 

 Temminck. When first hatched, the young are 

 quite destitute of down, and the skin is of a dark 

 lead colour ; in a few days, however, a white down 

 makes its appearance, and soon becomes so thick 

 and full, that the nestlings look like powder-puffs : 

 in about two months the young are fledged. 



The Bass Rock and St. Kilda may be regarded as 

 regular gannet farms ; the young are taken in great 

 numbers, not only for the sake of the down, but 

 also of their flesh, which, though oily and rank, is 

 esteemed as a relish, when roasted, in many parts of 

 Scotland ; and in the Edinburgh market, and the 

 markets of various other towns, the birds are sold 

 at the rate of one shilling and eiehtpence each, to 

 the number of many thousands. The eggs also are 

 highly prized, and it is said that twenty-two thousand 

 birds, and an immense quantity of eggs, are annually 

 consumed in St. Kilda alone. The young are cured 

 and dried for winter consumption. The precipitous 

 Bass Rock, according to Mr. Selby, is rented from 

 the proprietor at sixty or seventy pounds a-year ; 

 and the proceeds depend upon the produce of the 

 gannets. " Great care is taken to protect the old 

 birds, which the tenant is enabled to do from the 

 privilege possessed by the proprietor of preventing 

 any person from shooting or otherwise destroying 

 them, within a certain limited distance of the island. 

 From the accounts I have received from the resident 

 there, it appears that the gannet is a very long-lived 

 bird, as he has recognised, from particular and well- 

 known marks, certain individuals for upwards of 

 forty years that invariably returned to the same spot 

 Vol 11. 



to breed ; he also confirmed to me the time required 

 for this bird to attain maturity, viz., four years, and 

 pointed out several in the different garbs they 

 assume during that period, stating also, that until 

 fully matured, they have never been known to 

 breed." During incubation, in consequence of being 

 unmolested, they become very tame ; and where 

 the nests are easily accessible, upon the flat surface 

 of the rock on the south-west side of the island, will 

 allow themselves to be stroked by the hand without 

 resistance, or any show even of impatience, except 

 the low guttural cry of ffrorj, grog. Dr. Harvey 

 says that the surface of Bass Island is almost entirely 

 covered in the months of May and June with the 

 nests, eggs, and young of the gannet, so that it is 

 scarcely possible to walk without treading on them. 

 The flocks rise in clouds, and make such a stunning 

 noise that it is scarcely possible to hear your com- 

 panion's voice. The sea all round is covered with 

 them, and the flocks in the distance can only be 

 compared to vast swarms of bees. The food of the 

 gannet consists almost exclusively of the different 

 species of herring, on which it plunges from a great 

 altitude, with tremendous lurce and rapidity ; gan- 

 nets have, indeed, been taken by means of a fish 

 fastened to a board sunk to the depth of two fathoms, 

 against which, so violent has been the shock of the 

 bird, that its neck has been instantly dislocated, and 

 the bill firmly fixed in the wood. Thus, plunging 

 from aloft beneath the waves, does the birds pounce 

 upon its finny prey, and again rise into the regions 

 of air with surprising ease and address. Buchanan, 

 in his 'View of the Fishery of Great Britain,' calcu- 

 lated that the gannets of St. Kilda alone destroy 

 annually one hundred and five millions of herrings : 

 yet the shoals of this fish, though man draws his 

 millions also, seem undiminished, notwithstanding 

 the annual havoc made amongst them. On the 

 approach of autumn, the great body of gannets seek 

 more southern latitudes, and in winter are met with 

 in great abundance in the Bay of Biscay and in the 

 Mediterranean, where the anchovy and sardine 

 afford them an ample supply. 



The general colour of the adult gannet is white ; 

 the top of the head and back of the neck being 

 tinged with yellow, and the quill-feathers black ; 

 bill bluish grey ; naked skin around the eyes dull 

 blue; skin of throat black; webs of the toes dusky ; 

 a bluish streak along the tarsus and upper part of 

 the toes. Length two feet eight or ten inches. 

 The general plumage of the young of the year is 

 dusky grey, which gradually passes into white. 



Fig. 2061 represents the Gizzard of the Gannet 

 laid open in order to show the extensive solvent 

 glands. 



2062. — The Booby, or Biiown Gannet 



{Svlu fused). Le Fou Brun of the French. 



This species, called " fou," or booby, from its 

 apathy in allowing itself to be captured or knocked 

 on the head, is a native of desolate islands and 

 rocky shores in the warmer latitudes. Thousands 

 breed at the island of Ascension, on the Bahamas, 

 on the rocky islets of the coast of Cayenne, along 

 the shores of New Spain and the Caracas, as well 

 as of Brazil. It is found also in Rodriguez, the 

 Alacrane Islands, &c. ; but there are several spe- 

 cies between which voyagers do not discriminate. 

 Mr. Gould describes one (S. Australis) from the 

 TasmanianSeas: — " Like the other members of the 

 family," he savs, " this species will allow of its 

 being -taken witli the hand. Some of my specimens 

 were so taken on a rock on the Actaeon Islands." 

 Boobies often alight on vessels, and suffer them- 

 selves to be captured ; and Dampier says that in the 

 Alacrane Islands, on the coast of Yucatan, the 

 crowds of these birds were so great that he could 

 not pass their haunts without being incommoded 

 by their pecking. They were ranged in pairs ; and 

 though he succeeded in making some fly away by 

 the blows he bestowed upon them, the greater 

 number remained in despite of his efforts to make 

 them take wing. 



Numerous voyasrers have described or alluded to 

 the persecution which the booby experiences from 

 the frigate bird, a fact which Lesson questions, but 

 which seems to be very generally attested. Feuillfie, 

 Leguat, Dampier, Catesby, and many more, narrate 

 their observations respecting the encounter of the 

 frigate bird with the booby ; and Nuttall says, " the 

 boobies have a domestic enemy more steady though 

 less sanguinary in his persecutions than man ; this is 

 the frigate pelican or man-of-war bird, who, with a 

 keen eye descrying his humble vassal at a distance, 

 pursues him without intermission, and obliges him, 

 by blows with his wings and bill, to surrender his 

 finny prey, which the pirate instantly seizes and 

 swallows. . . . The booby utters a loud cry, some- 

 thing in sound betwixt that of the raven and the 

 goose, and this wailing is heard more particularly 

 when pursued by the frigate bird, or when the 

 assemblage happens to be seized with any sudden 

 panic." "Feuillee says, when the boobias " return in 



bands towards evening from their fishing, the frigate 

 birds arc in waiting, and, dashing upon them, compel 

 them to cry as if for succour, in doing which they 

 disgorge some of the fish which tliey are carrying 

 to their young ones, and thus do the frigate birds 

 profit by the fishing of the boobies, which they then 

 leave to pursue their route." 



In general manners the booby agrees with our 

 gannet, except that the latter by no means merits 

 the appellation of the former. Both walk awkwardly, 

 and real almost erect, supported, like the cormorant, 

 by the stiff' feathers of the tail. The brown booby 

 is of a general dusky brown above ; whitish beneath, 

 with black primaries ; the naked skin about the face 

 is reddish ; orbits yellow ; legs straw colour. 



In closing our account of the gannets we refer to 

 Fig. 2063, representing St. Kilda, where, as stated, 

 the solan-goose breeds in thousands, and where 

 quantities of the eggs and young ire taken. They 

 are procured at the hazard of the lives of the daring 

 fowler, who have to clamber on the rocks at a 

 prodigious height above a raging sea, or to be 

 lowered by means of a rope over horrid precipices 

 and hanging in mid air, to take their booty from the 

 shelves and ledges which the birds occupy, regard- 

 less of the roar and din of the voices and wings of 

 myriads of excited birds, mingling with the noise 

 of the rushing waters. 



2064, 2065, 20G6, 2067.— The White Pelican 



(Pelecanus onocrotalus). In the genus Pelecanug 

 the bill is very long, broad, flattened, and straight, 

 with a hooked projection at the extremity of the 

 upper mandible: the nostrils are basal slits; the 

 under mandible is formed of two long, slender 

 flexible branches uniting together at the tip, and 

 enclosing a widely dilatable membranous pouch, 

 which extends to the throat ; tongue rudimentary ; 

 eyes surrounded by a naked space ; body large ; legs 

 sliort ; wings moderately ample ; air-cells of the 

 body extensively developed. Fig. 2068 {represents 

 the Head, Fig. 2069 the Foot, of the Pelican. 



This magnificent bird is a native of Africa and 

 India, ami the southern provinces of Eastern 

 Europe. It is common on the Danube and Volga, 

 on the lakes of Hungary and Russia, on the Black 

 Sea and along the coasts of Greece, and also in 

 Egypt and the Cape of Good Hope. 



Hasselquist, who saw this species at Damietta, 

 observes that it visits Egypt in the middle of Sep- 

 tember, arriving in flocks, which form during flight 

 an acute triangle at a great elevation. Dr. von 

 Siebold saw it at Japan. The pelican swims well, 

 but, strictly speaking, does not dive. We have often 

 seen these birds plunge their long beaks and necks 

 under water, and net the fish in their capacious 

 pouches: in their wild state they hover and wheel 

 over the surface of the water, watching the shoals of 

 fish beneath, and suddenly sweeping down, bury 

 themselves in the foaming waves, rising immediately 

 from the water by their own buoyancy, up they soar, 

 the pouch laden with the fish scooped up during 

 their momentary submersion. The number of fish 

 the pouch of this species will contain may be easily 

 imagined when we state that it is so dilatable as to 

 be capable of containing two gallons of water ; yet 

 the bird has the power of contracting this membra- 

 nous expansion, by wrinkling it up under the lower 

 mandible, until it is scarcely to be seen. In shallow 

 inlets, which the pelican often frequents, it nets its 

 prey with great adroitness in the manner already 

 described, and which may be witnessed by observers 

 of these birds in the Zoological Gardens. 



The pelican chooses remote and solitary islands, 

 isolated rocks in the sea, the borders of lakes and 

 rivers, as its breeding-place. The nest, placed on 

 the ground, is made of coarse grasses, and the eggs, 

 which are white, are two or three in number. While 

 the female is incubating, the male brings fish to her 

 in his pouch, and the young, when hatched, are 

 assiduously attended by the parents, who feed them 

 by pressing the pouch against the breast, so as to 

 transfer the fish from the former into the throats of 

 the young. This action has doubtless given origin 

 to the old fable of the pelican feeding its young 

 with blood drawn from its own breast. Occasionally 

 the pelican perches on trees along the margin of 

 the water, but rocky shores are its favourite haunts. 

 In certain localities they congregate in great num- 

 bers, mixed with other water-fowl, all harmoniously 

 breeding together. Le Vaillant, upon visiting 

 Dassen Eyland, at the entrance of Saldanha Bay, 

 after wading through the surf and clambering up 

 the rocks, beheld an astonishing spectacle : — " All 

 of a sudden there arose from the whole surface of 

 the island an impenetrable cloud, which formed at 

 the distance of forty feet above our heads an im- 

 mense canopy, or rather sky, composed of birds of 

 every species and of all colours ; cormorants, sea- 

 gulls, sea-swallows, pelicans, and I believe the 

 whole winged race of this part of .Africa, assembled 

 on this spot. All their voices mixed together, and 

 modified according to their different kinds, formed 



K2 



