At Home with Wild Nature 



out my watch to see how long the bird was able to 

 remain submerged. Minute after minute went by but 

 the leaden-grey little object never stirred leg or wing, 

 and I grew alarmed for its safety. Securing a long 

 pole I poked the moorhen out, and to my great surprise 

 and sorrow it rose to the surface of the stream and 

 floated away stone dead. 



Gannets or solan geese enjoy a wonderful immunity 

 from danger, as the same birds have been known to 

 return to the same breeding stations for forty years in 

 unbroken succession. Nevertheless, a combination of 

 rare natural circumstances have been known to bring 

 wholesale disaster to members of even this hardy species. 

 Some years ago a singular spectacle was witnessed in 

 Lennon Cove, Cornwall. A very heavy sea was running 

 from east-south-east, and for some days there had been 

 great numbers of gannets fishing in the bay. One after- 

 noon, owing to there being no wind, the breakers rolled 

 the unfortunate birds ashore in hundreds. Whitesand 

 Bay presented a scene of great animation, one fisherman 

 alone securing a cartload of dead and dying gannets. 

 Why the birds allowed themselves to be thus entrapped 

 by weather conditions it is difficult to explain, but in 

 spite of the length of its life the solan goose does not 

 appear to be a very intelligent creature, as the following 

 incident will testify. A specimen feeding in the neigh- 

 bourhood of St. Kilda espied a fish just in front of a 

 small boat under sail, and straightway dived upon it 

 oblivious of the close proximity of the craft. By the 

 time it had reached the surface of the sea the approach- 



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