ORGANS OF BREATHING. 53 



ments 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 with 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. 



