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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



HEAD OF OLD MALE GANNET 



Gannets possess wonderful power of vision, but on the other hand their sense of smell and 

 hearing is notably poor. They have no nostrils and their ears are covered with dense 

 feathers. The plumage of the adult bird is white, primaries and coverts black; the bill 

 grayish, tinged with greenish or bluish lores, and the throat sac black. The feet are black 

 with greenish or bluish scales. This bird was once a resident of the famous Bird Rock. 



and Brewster's Booby. All these have some fe wof the 

 habits of the species here described. 



Gannets are strictly oceanic birds, and are only found 

 inland when they have been driven by storms, or for 

 some reason or other missed their accustomed migratory 

 routes. It is a 

 big bird, as big 

 as a goose ; 

 and hence, 

 among a good 

 many other 

 names applied 

 to them 

 t h r o u ghout 

 history, they 

 have been 

 called Solan 

 Geese, or simp- 

 1 y "Solans." 

 They are won- 

 derful on the 

 wing, flying 

 with great ra- 

 pidity, and 

 plunging down 

 from the air in 

 a most extra- 

 ordinary man- 

 ner to seize the fish upon which they prey. 



One of the most remarkable facts with respect to 

 these big sea birds is their extraordinary gregarious- 

 ness. At the breeding season and at other times they 

 congregate in thousands on rocky, isolated islets oc- 

 curring in their area of distribution, and there they build 

 their seaweed nests in great communities on the ledges, 

 each female laying a single, 

 rather large, chalky white 

 egg, tinged with greenish- 

 blue. On our side of the 

 Atlantic Ocean, the Gan- 

 nets breed in enormous 

 numbers on Bird Rock and 

 on Bonavenfture Island in 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 while they breed in similar 

 situations on several of the 

 islets off the British coasts. 

 During the winter these 

 birds are to be found as far 

 south as the Gulf of Mexico, 

 and northward to the coast 

 of North Carolina ; while on 

 the other side of the Atlantic 

 they occur in more or less 

 numbers on the Canary 

 Islands, at Madeira, and in 

 the Mediterranean off the 

 African coasts. 



So strong is the gregarious instinct in these birds that 

 they are rarely seen singly ; and they are truly beauti- 

 ful creatures upon the wing, or when swimming in num- 

 bers on the billows of the ocean. Indeed, the flight of 

 the Gannet has been described and figured by scores of 

 writers since the earliest times in history. For instance. 



Doctor Lucas, 

 a modem con- 

 tributor, says 

 this about it : 

 "The height at 

 which the Gan- 

 net flies above 

 the water is 

 proportiona t e 

 to the depth at 

 which the fish 

 are swimming 

 beneath, and 

 Captain Col- 

 lins tells me 

 that when fish 

 are swimming 

 near the sur- 

 face the Gan- 

 net flies very 

 low and darts 

 obliquely in- 

 stead of verti- 

 cally upon its prey. Should any finny game be seen 

 within range, down goes the Gannet headlong, the nearly 

 closed wings being used to guide the living arrow in its 

 downward flight. Just above the surface the wings are 

 firmly closed, and a small splash or spray shows where 

 the winged fisher cleaves the water to transfix its prey. 

 Disappearing for a few seconds, the bird reappears, 



rests for a moment on the 

 water, long enough to swal- 

 low his catch, and then rises 

 in pursuit of other game." 

 The islets where Gannets 

 have bred throughout his- 

 tory are known as "gan- 

 netries;" the birds are ex- 

 tremely tenacious of them, 

 and breed not at all else- 

 where. The islet Lundy, off 

 the British coast, has been 

 deserted ; others are Wales ; 

 Grasholm, on the coast of 

 Pembrokeshire ; Ireland : 

 the Bull Rock, the Skellings ; 

 Scotland: the Bass Rock, 



AN EGG OF THE GANNET (Sula bassatw) 



The gannet lays a single, white egg in a nest constructed of 

 seaweed. This egg, when incubated, turns a mottled earth- 

 brown. The white eggs are made so by an overlay of 

 chalky matter, which may be scraped off. Because of their 

 precarious nesting habits, the gannet eggs are quite often 

 broken. 



Ailsa Craig, St. Kilda Is- 

 lands, Sulisgair (or North 

 Barra), the stack of Stack 

 and Skerry. Faero: Myg- 

 genaes. Iceland: Sulusker, 

 Eldey, Grimsey. No Gan- 



