GANNET. 193 



fares continue in the uplands, and are very fat ; but 

 afterwards they betake themselves to the water mea- 

 dows, and feed on worms. These birds are then 

 the " head game" for schoolboys, and people who go 

 hedge-popping during the Christmas holidays. They 

 are, however, scarcely tame enough for this diversion 

 till they have somewhat lost their condition by hard 

 weather. As fieldfares are so dispersed when feed- 

 ing, the only way to get five or six at a shot is to 

 hide under some place near the trees, which they fly 

 to on being disturbed, and on which they will collect, 

 if some one goes round to drive them from the water 

 meadows. 



40. 



GANNET, GAN, or SOLAN GOOSE. Pelicanus 

 Bassanus Lefou de Bassan. 



Gannets are occasionally seen on almost every 

 coast, at times when the shoals of herrings are most 

 abundant ; and, in stormy weather, they come pretty 

 near to land, where, like large seagulls, they may be 

 seen hovering over the foaming surge. These birds 

 may be easily distinguished from the gulls by the 

 additional length of their necks, and the sharp black 

 ends of their wings, the motion of which is, at times, 

 more like that of the heron. 



The sailors sometimes catch these birds, by fasten- 

 ing a fresh herring on a floating plank, against which 

 the gannet's neck is broken, when furiously pouncing 

 on his prey. 



With regard to the swarms of solan geese, which 



o 



