GANNET, OR SOLAN GOOSE. Sula Bass&nea. 



THE well-known BOOBY (Sula fusca], so called from its stupidity when attacked 

 whether by man or the frigate bird, is closely allied to the gannet. This bird is found in 

 most of the warmer latitudes settled upon the islands and rocky shores, and catching fish 

 all day for the benefit of the frigate birds who attack and rob it. The colour of the Booby 

 is brown above and whitish grey beneath. 



THE common COBMOEANT is well known for its voracious habits, its capacities of 

 digestion having long become proverbial. 



Thio bird is common on all our rocky coasts, where it may be seen sitting on some 

 projecting ledge, or diving and swimming with great agility, and ever and anon returning 

 to its resting-place on the rock. It is an admirable swimmer and a good diver, and chases 

 fish with equal perseverance and success, both qualities being needful to satisfy the wants 

 of its ever-craving maw. Eels are favourite morsels with the Cormorant, which, jf the eel 

 should be small, swallows it alive in spite of the writhings and struggling of its victim, 

 and the many retrogressions which it will make from the interior of its devourer, until it 

 is finally accumulated and digested, the latter being a process of wonderful celerity. If 

 the eel is rather large and powerful, the Cormorant batters it against some hard substance 

 and then swallows it easily. Mr. Fortune gives a ludicrous narrative of a number of 

 tame Cormorants and their behaviour at feeding-time ; how they were supplied with 

 eels ; how they swallowed them as fast as possible ; how after all had disappeared, one of 

 the swallowed eels returned into the air and was immediately fought for by the birds, 

 greatly to the discomfiture of the individual whose property it had been ; and how he 

 tried to reimburse himself by means of a similar mishap on the part of some of his 

 companions, 



