'34 



The Stork-like Birds 



says Newton, "is almost invariably captured by plunging upon it from a height, 

 and a company of Gannets fishing presents a curious and interesting spectacle. 

 Flying in single file, each bird, when it comes over the shoal, closes its wings and 

 dashes perpendicularly and with a velocity that must be seen to be appreciated, 

 into the waves, whence it emerges after a few seconds, and shaking the water 

 from its feathers, mounts in a wide curve, orderly takes its place in the rear of 

 the string, to repeat its headlong plunge as soon as it again finds itself above its 

 prey." Chapman says: "They are most impressive when diving, as with half- 

 closed wings, like great spearheads, they descend from a height of about forty 



FIG. 41. Common Gannet, Sula bassana. 



feet with a force and speed that takes them wholly out of sight, and splashes the 

 water ten feet or more into the air." Although they are not provided with a 

 throat pouch, as are several of their relatives, the throat is greatly dilatable, 

 which permits them to swallow fish of considerable size. They are said never 

 to carry fish to their young in their bills, but to feed them by disgorging. They 

 nest in communities, often of vast extent, on rocky and inaccessible islands and 

 headlands, building but a rude nest of a few grasses and seaweeds. One or two 

 eggs are laid, which are described as being elliptical in form, with a rough, dull 

 white or chalky white surface ; the size is about three and one half by one and 

 three fourths inches. 



Common Gannet. The family Sulida is clearly a very old one, for not less 

 than four fossil species have been described from the Miocene age, three coming 

 from France and one, a very well marked species, from North Carolina. At 

 the present time eleven species are recognized, of which number some four or 

 five are found along the North American coasts. One of the most abundant 



