*6$ THE GANNET. 



the most southern coast of Cornwall, and gives the fish- 

 ermen notice of the herrings' and pilchards' approach, 

 as they regularly precede them from the Northern Seas, 

 and return again to these frigid climates at the season 

 when these fish disappear. 



The gannet is remarkable for the keenness of its 

 sight, and is possessed of a transparent membrane 

 under the eye-lid, with which it covers the whole eye 

 at pleasure, without, in the slightest degree, obscuring 

 the sight, and by this means it is enabled to dart head- 

 long into the water from the amazing height of an 

 hundred feet. These birds breed but once a year, and 

 lay only a single cg^ ; but if by chance that should be 

 removed, a second, and even a third, will supply its 

 place ; but then the poor bird, tired with persecution, 

 flies away to some more secure place. The egg is ra- 

 ther less than that of a goose ; and their nests are com- 

 posed of those substances which they happen to find 

 floating upon the surface of the :-;ca. 



OF THE SMALLER GULLS AND PETRELS. 



The gull, and all its varieties, is well known in every 

 part of the kingdom, and is seen, with a slow-sailing 

 flight, hovering over rivers to prey upon the smaller 

 kind offish. It likewise follows the ploughman in the 

 fallow-fields, for the purpose of picking up the insects 

 from off the ground ; and it will eat carrion in times 

 of scarcity, and almost every other kind of food. 



The large gulls reside at a remote distance from man, 

 but the smaller ones dwell nearer his abode. Of this 

 species there are twenty different kinds ; but of the pet- 

 rel only three, and of the sea-swallow the same. The 

 gulls may be distinguished by an angular knob on the 

 lower chap ; the petrels, by their wanting of it ; and 



