THE GANNET 377 



to an enormous extent with the head drawn sideways, apparently 

 scooped the young one into its mouth." In another passage he 

 describes the nestling as being completely concealed when fed. 1 



Both parents share in the task of feeding their offspring. On one 

 occasion I saw a young bird fed twice by one parent and once by the 

 other within five minutes. Fish are readily disgorged both by old and 

 young when alarmed. I noted that the fish disgorged by one young 

 bird was a gurnard. It was ejected head first, and was therefore, 

 swallowed tail first. As the formidable spikes of this fish lie back- 

 wards, they would have caught in the gullet of the bird had not the 

 head of the fish been softened by previous partial digestion in the 

 stomach of the parent and the spikes pressed flat into the flesh. The 

 fact that the young swallowed the gurnard tail first showed that the 

 parent took it from the sea head first. That it always does so is 

 rendered unlikely by the fact that gannets have at various times been 

 picked up dead with gurnards firmly wedged in their throats. 2 Let 

 us add that the gannet's method of swallowing its food whole enables 

 it to dispense with a tongue. What remains of this organ is a mere 

 survival. The same applies to its nostrils, which have been reduced 

 to a pinhole. 



The gannet's favourite element is the air, and it loves nothing 

 better than sailing through it with its long wings six feet or more 

 from tip to tip almost motionless. But it is an efficient swimmer, as 

 might be inferred from its webbed feet, with respect to which it is 

 worth noting that the web connects all four toes, a character which 

 is common to all the species in the order Steganopodes (Cormorants 

 and Darters, Frigate-birds, Pelicans, and Tropic-birds), and originates 

 the name (Gr. steganos, covered, pous, foot), but it does not appear 

 to be known whether it swims under water. It floats with great 

 buoyancy owing to the highly developed system of air-cells lying 

 between its skin and body and communicating with its lungs. It is 



1 Rough Notes, vol. iii. 



2 Gray, Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 462. 



