AIR CELLS OF THE GANNET. 3^3 



tous face of the rock, but a considerable number also place 

 their nests — generally made carelessly of a few dried stalks 

 of seaweed, rudely put together — on the summit near the 

 edge, where they can be walked among; there the birds 

 are very tame, allowing a person to approach them, but 

 when a foot is held out aggressively they will bite at it. 



Most, if not all, of these breeding stations are rented from 

 the proprietors, the rent being paid chiefly by the feathers. 

 The young geese are killed and cured. The inhabitants of 

 St. Kilda, the most western of the Hebrides, are said to 

 consume twenty-two thousand of the young birds every 

 year, besides eggs. The gannet is easily kept in confine- 

 ment, though the required supply of fish renders its keep- 

 ing expensive. It is indifferent alike to cold or stormy 

 weather; the air-cells which give lightness to the body are 

 developed in an extraordinary degree. Montague remarks 

 " the gannet is capable of containing about three full inspir- 

 ations of my lungs, divided into nearly three equal portions, 

 the cellular parts under the skin on each side holding nearly 

 as much as the cavity of the body. In the act of respiration 

 there appears to be always some air propelled between the 

 skin and the body, as a visible expansion and contraction is 

 observed about the breast, and this singular conformation 

 makes the bird so buoyant that it floats high on the w^ater, 

 and does not sink beneath the surface, as observed in the 

 cormorant and shag." 



The Hooper or Wild Swan is the most common of its 

 epecies in England and America, being a general winter 

 visitant. The length to the end of the toes is five feet; to 

 that of the tail, four feet ten inches; extent of wings, 

 seven feet three inches; and weight from thirteen to 

 sixteen pounds. The lower part of the bill is black; the 

 base of it, and the space between that and the eyes, is 

 covered with a naked yellow skin ; the whole plumage in 

 the old birds is of a pure white, the down being very short and 



