188 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



dreds of individuals, enjoying a siesta after fishing. This species does not plunge 

 into the water after its prey, as is the custom of its relative, the P. fuscus, but swims 

 along, beating the surface of the water with its wings, and scooping up great numbers 

 of fish at once. When raising the bill from the water, the point is held downwards 

 until all the water has been allowed to run out from the sac, and then the small fish 

 contained in the skinny bag are devoured at leisure. Sometimes so many fish, or such 

 large ones, are obtained that the sac hangs down nearly to the ground, it is so very 

 elastic ; while at other times, when empty, it is drawn up between the crura of the 

 lower mandible. When on the wing, the head is drawn in close to the shoulders, the 

 webbed feet extended behind. I have never heard them utter any sound as they thus 

 proceeded." 



About a dozen species or forms of pelicans are known. All of them have the 

 region between the eye and the bill bare of feathers, except the Australian species, the 

 spectacled pelican (P. conspicillattts), which has only a naked ring round the eyes, like 

 spectacles (conspicilla'), hence the names. 



Next come the gannets or boobies, the SULID^E, the typical species of which is 

 beautifully figured in the accompanying cut. We remark at once that the bill termi- 

 nates rather pointedly, the ' nail ' only being slightly bent, and not hooked over the 

 tip of the lower mandible, as in both pelicans and cormorants. We have already 

 mentioned the abnormal ratio of the phalanges of the toes. The wings are long and 

 strong, and the birds are consequently excellent flyers, which secure their prey, consist- 

 ing of fishes, by plunging headlong into the water, with a velocity that makes the 

 spray rise several feet. In order to offer the minimum of opposition in the bird's 

 diving progress, the sternal apparatus has been peculiarly modified. The breast-bone 

 itself is unusually long for a bird of this order, being nearly twice as long as it is 

 broad, and the coracoids, as pointed out by John Flower, are articulated in a direction 

 nearly parallel with the axis of the breast-bone, and not, as in most birds, at nearly 

 right angles to it, an arrangement differing widely from that in the cormorants. Like 

 the other great flyers of the order, the gannets possess a " system of subcutaneous air- 

 cells which pervade almost the whole surface of the body, and are capable of volun- 

 tary inflation or exhaustion," already referred to while describing a similar peculiarity 

 in the screamers. 



' Sula ' is an old Norse word, meaning a swallow, ad the gannet is, in the Scandina- 

 vian languages, known as the ' hav-sula,' or sea-swallow, probably because of its pow- 

 erful flight. One of the popular English names of the bird, the ' solan goose,' - 

 is evidently related, and probably directly derived from the Norse word, and would 

 consequently mean ' swallow-goose.' Other names bestowed upon these birds are 

 ' gentleman,' or ' Jan van Gent.' Macgillivray describes its flight thus : " In launch- 

 ing from the cliffs, they frequently utter a single plaintive cry, perform a curve having 

 its concavity upwards, then shake the tail, frequently the whole plumage, draw the 

 feet backwards, placing them close under the tail on each side, and cover them with 

 the feathers. In flying, the body, tail, neck, and bill are nearly in a straight line ; 

 the wings extended, and never brought close to the body, and they move by regular 

 flappings, alternating with regular sailings." It is interesting to remark that they fly 

 with outstretched necks, as do the cormorants, thus presenting a similar difference 

 from the pelicans, as do the storks and ibises from the herons. 



The food of the gannet consists chiefly of herrings, and having, like the pelicans, 

 a very dilatable oesophagus, it is capable of swallowing fish of considerable size. 



