222 BRITISH BIRDS 



height, and on catching sight of its prey rises to a greater h eight, 

 and then, with wings nearly closed, drops straight down, with great 

 force, into the water. Its appearance when falling has been likened 

 by one observer to * a brilliant piece of white marble.' 



The gannets begin to assemble at the breeding-rock in March. 

 Their nesting habits are similar to those of the cormorant, but only 

 one egg is laid, which is, like the cormorant's egg, pale blue in 

 colour and thickly coated with a white, chalky material. Mr. 

 Charles Dixon, in ' Our Barer Birds,' thus describes a visit to the 

 great gannet settlement on the east coast : ' By far the best locality 

 for studying the nesting economy of the gannet is the Bass, that 

 wide-famed mass of basaltic rocks standing like a sentinel in the 

 Firth of Forth. . . . Upon reaching the Bass a few gannets may 

 be seen sailing dreamily about, but you have no idea of the immense 

 numbers until you have climbed the rugged hill. . . . But when 

 the summit of the cliff is reached the scene that bursts upon our 

 gaze is one that well-nigh baffles all description. Thousands upon 

 thousands of gannets fill the air, just like heavy snowflakes, and on 

 every side their loud, harsh cries of " carra-carra-carra " echo and re- 

 echo among the rocks. The gannets take very little notice of our ap- 

 proach, many birds allowing themselves to be actually pushed from 

 their nests. Others utter harsh notes, and with flapping wings 

 offer some show of resistance, only taking wing when absolutely 

 compelled to do so, and disgorging one or two half-digested fish as 

 they fall lightly over the cliffs into the air. On all sides facing the 

 sea gannets may be seen. Some are standing on the short grass on 

 the edge of the cliffs, fast asleep, with their heads buried under their 

 dorsal plumage ; others are preening their feathers ; whilst many 

 are quarrelling and fighting over standing-room on the rocks.' 



Describing another great breeding-place of the gannet on the 

 island of Borreay, about four miles from St. Kilda, he says : ' The 

 flat, sloping top of one of these stupendous ocean rocks, called by 

 the natives " Stack-a-lie," looks white as the driven snow, so thickly 

 do the gannets cluster there, and the sides are just as densely popu- 

 lated wherever the cliff is rugged and broken. So vast is this colony 

 of birds that it may be seen distinctly forty miles away, looking 

 like some huge vessel under full sail heading to windward.' 



