ORGANS OF BREATHING. 53 



xnents have confirmed the fact ; the fractured portion of a 

 bone that had been separated, when immersed in soap-and- 

 water, was observed to emit bubbles from the part nearest 

 the body, proving, beyond a doubt, that it contained air in 

 considerable quantities. 



The quills of the feathers are also air-vessels, which can 

 be emptied and filled at pleasure. 



There is a bird called the Gannet, or Solan Goose, which 

 is a beautiful instance of this wonderful provision ; it lives 

 on fish, and passes the greater part of its time either in the 

 air or on the water, even in the most tempestuous weather, 

 when it may be seen floating like a cork on the wildest 

 waves. To enable it to do so with the least possible incon- 

 venience, it is provided with a greater power of filling and 

 puffing itself with air than almost any other bird. It can 

 even force air between its skin and its body, to such a degree, 

 that it becomes nearly as light and buoyant as a bladder. 

 This buoyancy, however, entirely prevents its diving after 

 fish : Nature, therefore, has applied a remedy by giving an 

 extraordinary force and rapidity of flight, in enabling the 

 creature to dart down on a shoal from a great height. This 

 velocity is so prodigious, that the force with which it strikes 

 the surface of the water is sufficient to stun a bird not pre- 

 pared for such a blow, or to force the water up the nostrils. 

 But the Gannet has nothing to fear from either of these 

 causes, the front of its head being covered w r ith a sort of 

 horny mask, which gives it a singularly wild appearance ; 

 and it has no nostrils, a deficiency amply remedied by the 

 above-mentioned reservoirs of air, and capacity for keeping 

 them always filled. Some notion may be formed of the 

 rapidity of their descent by a curious mode of taking them, 

 occasionally practised by the fishermen in the North. A 

 board is turned adrift, on which a dead fish is fastened. On 

 seeing it, the Gannet pounces down, and is frequently killed 

 or stunned by striking the board, or is secured by its sharp- 

 pointed beak being actually driven into the wood like a nail, 

 and holding it fast. 



