ORGANS OF BREATHING. 63 



in soap and water, was observed to emit bubbles from 

 the part nearest the body, proving beyond a doubt 

 that it contained air in considerable quantities. 



The quills of the feathers are also air-vessels, 

 which can be emptied and filled at pleasure. 



There is a bird called the Gannet, or Solan-Goose, 

 which is a beautiful instance of this wonderful pro- 

 vision ; it lives on fish, and passes the greater part 

 of its time either in the air or on the water, even in 

 the most tempestuous weather, when it may be seen 

 floating like a cork on the wildest waves. To enable 

 it to do so, with the least possible inconvenience, it 

 is provided with a greater power of filling and puff- 

 ing itself with air than almost any other bird. It 

 can even force air between its skin and its body, to 

 such a degree, that it becomes nearly as light and 

 buoyant as a bladder. This buoyancy, however, 

 entirely prevents its diving after fish; Nature, there- 

 fore, has applied a remedy by giving an extraordinary 

 force and rapidity of flight, in enabling the creature 

 to dart down on a shoal from a great height. This 

 velocity is so prodigious, that the force with which it 

 strikes the surface of the water is sufficient to stun a 

 bird not prepared for such a blow r , or force the water 

 up the nostrils. But the Gannet has nothing to fear 

 from either of these causes, the front of its head being 

 covered with a sort of horny mask, which gives it a 

 singularly wild appearance; and it has no nostrils, 

 a deficiency amply remedied by the above-mentioned 

 reservoirs of air, and capacity for keeping them 

 always filled. Some notion may be formed of the 

 rapidity of their descent by a curious mode of 

 taking them, occasionally practised by the fishermen 



