376 THE GANNET 



case of the young osprey, 1 an instinctive act awakened by the sight 

 of fish beneath the surface, but certain proof can only be result of 

 observations which exclude all possibility of imitation. 



The gannet's method of fishing is to sweep in wide circles over 

 the sea, and, when its prey is marked, to fall like a big white packet 

 down through the air, the wings half closed, till close to the surface, 

 when it closes its wings and drops in with a splash, to emerge shortly 

 with its fish already lodged inside. It reposes a few seconds, and 

 then, with laboured flapping, takes wing once more. The height from 

 which the descent is made may vary from a score of feet to two or 

 three hundred, possibly more, varying probably with the depth of 

 the fish. 



If a gannet has a young one to feed, it flies with the fish it has 

 swallowed to the ledge, and there alights with every appearance of 

 having no important business to do. The young bird, however, quite 

 understands the situation. It proceeds to cosset or peck diligently 

 its parent's bill, whereupon the old bird, after certain convulsive 

 manifestations which seem to indicate that it is bringing the fish part 

 way up the gullet, opens its beak wide. Into the cavity thus presented 

 to it the young bird plunges its head. There is a struggling and a 

 tugging, and the head is withdrawn. I have never seen anything pass 

 from one beak to the other, the fish being seized and swallowed inside 

 the gullet of the parent. I have not seen the fish disgorged onto the 

 ledge before the young. 



This account does not refer to the first few days of the nestling's 

 life, when it is fed not with fish, but, according to some, on semi- 

 digested fish pulp, but actual evidence on the point is scanty. The 

 act of feeding at this stage has been noted by E. T. Booth, who had 

 good opportunities of seeing it performed by birds in captivity. " The 

 nestling," he writes, " was calling faintly, and lifting up its head open- 

 mouthed, when the old bird dropped forward, and opening the beak 



1 See Home Life of the Osprey, p. 53, by C. G. Abbot, who quotes the American Zoological 

 Society's Bulletin, No. 11, 1903, p. 120 (Baynes), and Scribner's Magazine, xli., 1907, p. 704 (Beebe). 



