OUR GANNETS SEA-FOWL OF UNUSUAL INTEREST 



781 



Island, which is fourteen leagues from the mainland ; 

 this abounds with birds, so much so that all the ships of 

 France could load up with them without any apparent di- 

 minution. Here we secured two boat-loads full for 

 food." 



In June, 1833. Audubon saw these Rocks from the 

 deck of the Ripley, and since his day they have been 

 visited by a number of American naturalists and orni- 

 thologists, who have given us most interesting accounts 

 with photographic and other illustrations of them. 



So much, then, for the accounts of our explorers, none 

 of whom found the gannets anything like as numerous 

 at their various breeding sites, as in the days of Jacques 

 Cartier and the early explorers. 



The Gannet lays a single, white egg in a nest con- 

 structed of seaweed ; this egg, when incubated, turns a 

 mottled earth brown, and has been so figured by Mr. 

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



chalky matter . . ' . 



which may be 

 scraped off. | 

 They get verj 

 dirty before 

 they are 

 hatched, and 

 not a few are 

 broken in ont 

 way or an- 

 other. At their 

 p r e c i p i - 

 tous, rocky 

 places of 

 breeding, 

 every avail- 

 able ledgelct 

 may have a 

 nest upon it, 

 the sight 

 being, as a 

 whole, one to 

 be marveled at 



of the young Gannet from its natal ledge is a very un- 

 steady performance," says Mr. Gurney ; "yet on the 

 whole it is well sustained, so that the bird has probably 

 achieved a distance of half a mile before the final de- 

 scending curve into the sea takes place, which ends with 

 a mighty splash, caused by the impact with the water. 

 * * * When once launched, the young Gannet is com- 

 paratively safe, except that it is now in some measure 

 at the mercy of the tide. In the sea it remains, drifting 

 hither and thither for a space of two or three weeks. It 

 is apparently unable to rise from the water, and all evi- 

 dence points to its receiving no food whatever, except 

 the sustenance contained in its own subcutaneous layer 

 of grease, which is considerable, enough to impart nutri- 

 ment to the rest of the body." 



Calculations have been carefully made that go to 

 show that when an egg of a gannet is hatched on the 

 first of July, the young bird does not begin fishing until 



the 25th of the 



TWO YEAR OLD GANNET 



At this age the plumage has nearly assumed the colors of the adult bird. These birds sub- 

 sist upon quite a variety of marine fishes, ranging in length all the way from sardines to 

 big herrings, which they capture by plunging for them from the air to the sea, where their 

 victims are innocently swimming near the surface. 



as belonging in the list of the world's wonders. Nearly 

 all large gregarious birds lay but a single egg to the 

 clutch, and when we find two in the same nest, the sec- 

 ond one was doubtless laid by another individual. 



Gurney says : "Under normal conditions a nestling 

 Gannet emerges from its egg at the end of June, blind 

 and bald, with small feet, a large head, and a mouth of 

 dark bluish-grey, and, in twenty-four hours it has gained 

 strength enough to stretch its wings ; on the eighth day 

 its eyes are open, and by the ninth it can squall vigor- 

 ously."' The feeding of the nestlings by the old ones 

 makes another very interesting chapter in their life his- 

 tories. 



Many facts in the lives of gannets, as well as in the 

 lives of other large marine birds, are entirely unknown 

 to the general public. When the time comes for the 

 young birds to look out for themselves, some remarkable 

 developments take place. "The flight, or rather descent 



following Sep- 

 tember. Young 

 albatrosses are 

 so laden with 

 their own fat 

 that one of 

 them may go 

 five months 

 without taking 

 any nourish- 

 ment ; this is 

 likewise true 

 of young pen- 

 guins and of 

 other sea fowl. 

 Adult gan- 

 n e t s exhibit 

 great af- 

 fection for 

 each other and 

 for their 

 another of their traits, as is their 

 when their nests on the pre- 



young. Jealousy is 



short-lived combativeness 



cipitous ledges crowd each other during the breeding 



season. 



Gannets jjossess wonderful power of vision, but upon 

 the other hand their sense of smell and hearing is notably 

 ])oor; they have no nostrils, and their ears are covered 

 with dense feathers. 



These birds subsist upon quite a variety of marine 

 fishes, ranging in length all the way from sardines to 

 big herrings, which they capture by plunging for them 

 from the air and scooping them up with their mandibles 

 while swimming on the sea, where these fish occur in 

 numbers near the surface. 



In addition to their normal mortality, gannets are de- 

 stroyed in many ways ; but all that side of their history 

 must be omitted here for lack of space, together with 

 many other interesting facts regarding them. 



