22O LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



the light-keepers, who think that the birds are increasing in 

 numbers. 



Range outside the British Islands. As in our own islands, the 

 breeding-places of the Gannet are confined to a few localities, 

 which are in the Western Faeroes, in Iceland, and again on 

 the Magdalene Islands and other rocky islets in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, on the Atlantic side of North America. The 

 species wanders south in winter, and reaches as far as the 

 Mexican coast in America, and to North Africa and Madeira, 

 but its southern limits in winter are not well known, and it 

 would appear to be represented by distinct species of the 

 genus in all the southern continents. 



Habits. The Gannet is entirely maritime, and is only found 

 inland when driven by stress of weather and exhausted. It 

 lives entirely on fish and destroys a large number of herrings 

 and other surface-feeding species, falling on them from a height 

 in the air, as it does not dive like a Cormorant. Except in the 

 winter, when single specimens are met with on our coasts, the 

 Gannet is a gregarious bird, nesting and fishing in company, 

 and some idea of the number of the latter may be gained from 

 the figures given by Mr. Seebohm, who reckons that on Sulis- 

 geir there are one hundred and fifty thousand pairs, on the 

 Stack of Suliskerry twenty-five thousand pairs, and the same 

 number on Boreray. On the Bass Rock and Ailsa Craig he 

 puts the numbers at about six thousand pairs on each. When 

 feeding in company, as they do, many birds are caught in the 

 fishing-nets. 



The flight of the Gannet is decidedly grand, as the bird 

 swoops along at a prodigious rate, one flap of the wings seem- 

 ing sufficient to carry it for a great distance. At first appear- 

 ing as a speck on the horizon, I have known one of these birds 

 to pass over my boat in a space of time almost incredible ; but 

 the long pointed wings have a way of swinging it through the 

 air, so that in a few seconds the great bird looms up close, 

 and in a few more is out of vision behind the next headland. 

 Sometimes the Gannets soar to a great height and wheel 

 round and round, seldom settling on the water except to digest 

 their food or to sleep. They are capable of traversing long 



