256 



THE BIRDS OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 



cormorants The cormorants having been alluded to in an earlier chapter, it 



and Gannet. w [\\ suffice to mention in this place that they are met with on almost 



all coasts save those of the South Pacific. To the same group belongs a very 



cnaracteristic bird of the North Atlantic, the gannet (Sula bassana), a species of 



the approximate size of a goose, with a generally creamy white plumage relieved 





GANNET. 



by black primaries. The bare face is bluish black, the beak yellowish white, and 

 the leg greenish black. Gannets breed on a few islands round the British coasts 

 as well as in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; the almost inaccessible localities where it 

 nests in larga colonies including North Barra, Ailsa Craig, and the Bass Rock. 

 In October gannets migrate south, generally following the coast, the limit being 

 seemingly Madeira and its latitude on the mainland. In the north the breeding- 

 area extends to Iceland. On the American side, where they have five or six 

 well-known breeding-places, gannets travel as far south as the Gulf of Mexico on 



