( 120 ) 



The GANNET, or SOLAN GOOSE, 



S reckoned among the boobies; and is the fizeofa goofe, butics wings 



fix feet over; bill fix inches long, ftraight alnioft to the point; the 



fides irregularly jagged, the better to hold its prey. Its colour is chiefly 

 white ; inftead of nollrils it has a long furrow, reaching alnnoft to 

 the end of the bill. From the corner of the mouth a narrow flip of black 

 bare flcin extends to the hind part of the head ; beneath is another that is 

 dilatable, and of fize fufficient to contain five or fix entire herrings, which, 

 in the breeding feafon, it carries at once to its mates or its young ; 

 is fometimes choaked in fwailowing too large a fi(h. 



The (kin of thefe birds is not clofely adhering to the flefli, but iscon- 

 nefled to it by little bunches of fibres, placed at unequal diftances, as 

 from one to two inches, and capable of extenfion, fo that by blovving air 

 into the fkin it fwells like a bladder j no communication between this in- 

 terval and the thorax is difcoverable ; yet, doubtlefs, the air has pafiTage, 

 probably through the ceilulary membrane. 



The iilands to the north of Scotland, the Skelig iflands off the confts 

 of Kerry, in Ireland, and thofe in the north fea off Norway, abound with 

 them. .But on the Bafs ifland, in the Frith of Edinburgh, they are feen 

 in the greateft abundance. In'Sc.Kilda, Martin alfures us, the inhabitant* 

 confume annually twenty three thoufand young birds, befides amazing 

 quantities of their eggs. On thefe they principally fubfiff. 



The gannet is a bird of paffage. In winter it feeks the more fouthern 

 coafts of Cornwall, hovering over the fhoals of herrings and pilchards 

 that then come down from the northern feas : its firft appearance in the 

 northern iflands is in the beginning of fpring j and it continues to breed 

 till the end of fummer. But, in general, its motions are determined by 

 'the migrations of the fhoals of herrings, which it afliduoufly attends 

 in their paffage, and keeps with them their whole circuit round our 

 ifland. 



Is poffeffed of a tranfparent membrane under the eye-lid, with which it 

 covers the whole eye at pleafure, without obfcuring the fight in the 

 fmalleft degree. This teems neceflary to fecure the eyes of lb weighty 

 a creature, whofe method of prey is by darting headlong from an height 

 of an hundred feet into the water. Breed yearly, and lay but one egg, 



which 



