FISHING BIRDS. 367 



things we say are striking and wonderful facts which 

 may well cause a man to pause and think even in the 

 midst of the uproar created by the howling of the 

 tempest and the thundering strokes of the seas. 



Did time and space permit, many interesting details 

 might be related of the wonderful skill and daring of 

 certain sorts of fishing birds, of which the gannet, or 

 solan goose (Sula Bass ana] which is common on all 

 the British coasts, furnishes a good example. Without 

 any great stretch of imagination, this class of sea-fowl 

 may be regarded as the eagles or falcons of 

 the ocean, as they swoop down upon their prey, exactly 

 like the falcon. When sailing through the air at a 

 great height above the water, their keen gaze at once 

 detects the presence of fish swimming unconscious of 

 danger near the surface of the waves. Then, watch- 

 ing their opportunity they will suddenly precipitate 

 themselves from on high, and coming down just like 

 a heavy stone dropped from a high cliff into the sea, 

 they dash into the waves and reappear after the lapse 

 of a few seconds with the captured fish. These birds 

 generally manage to make their swoop with such 

 unerring accuracy that they rarely or never seem to 

 miss their mark, 



In the colder regions of Northern Europe, we have 

 also ourselves several times been witness to the still 

 more curious fact of the capture of fish of considerable 

 size in rapidly flowing rivers by a land bird, the " harrier" * 

 (Circus Cyaneus], a species of falcon of surpassing 

 strength and boldness. On one occasion at Jock Mock 

 in Swedish Lapland, we saw one of these birds suddenly 

 fall from a great height into the rapids, at the foot 



* Sometimes called the "hen-harrier." 



