GANNET. 197 



afterwards they betake themselves to the water meadows, 

 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 feeding, 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. 



GANNET, GAN, or SOLAN GOOSE. Pelicanus Bas- 

 sanus 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 corne 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 fastening 

 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 

 breed on the islands near North Britain, and the manner 

 by which the fowler may distinguish their alarm, I find, 

 that precisely what I should have observed is already so 

 much more ably described, that I consider it better to 

 quote the accounts from Dr. Harvey (as translated in 



