226 MERSATRICES. 



carries food to its young in its gullet, never in its bill, and 

 utters a harsh cry, resembling carra, carra, crak, crak. At St 

 Kilda vast numbers are killed as food, and for their feathers. 

 At the Bass and Ailsa, they are also, in smaller numbers, 

 similarly used. 



Solan Goose. 



Pelecanus bassanus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 217. Pelecanus 

 bassanus, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 891. Sula alba, Temm. Man. 

 d'Ornith. ii. 905. SulaBassana, Solan Gannet, MacGillivray, 

 Brit. Birds, v. 



ORDER XIX. MERSATRICES. PLUNGERS. 



While some of the fishing sea-birds, as we have seen, 

 obtain their food by diving from the surface of the water, 

 and pursuing their prey beneath it, others, although 

 web-toed, and capable of swimming, never enter into the 

 water, unless momentarily by plunging or dipping into 

 it from on wing. Of this latter kind are the numerous 

 species, some of which are found in all latitudes, and even 

 in the midst of oceans, far from land, to which collective- 

 ly I have given the name of Mersatrices. Terns, Gulls, 

 Albatrosses, and Petrels, are familiar examples of this 

 order. They are peculiarly erratic birds, which, unless 

 when fixed to a place for a time by the cares of breeding, 

 wander about in search of their food, which consists es- 

 sentially of fishes, but also of Crustacea, mollusca, worms, 

 insects, and sometimes carcasses of whales, land mamma- 

 lia, and birds. Their structure is, of course, in confor- 

 mity with this mode of life : they can usually walk with 

 ease, wade in the shallows, swim lightly, and fly in an 

 easy and buoyant manner. Their general characters seem 

 to be the following : 



Birds of large, moderate, or small size, having the 

 body ovate, rather light in proportion to their bulk ; the 



