THE BRITISH PELICAN 79 



a hundred yards away ; others flying about in an aim- 

 less way, dropping down at intervals as if to exchange 

 remarks with those on the water, then wandering off 

 again. 



One day sitting on a rock at Gurnard's Head, I 

 watched a company of forty or fifty gannets fishing 

 in a calm sea where a great many herring and lesser 

 black-backed gulls were scattered about idly rocking 

 on the surface in their usual way. The gannets were 

 sweeping round at a height of about a hundred feet, 

 and were finding fish in plenty as their falls into the 

 sea were pretty frequent. The gulls saw nothing, or 

 knew that the fishes were not for them, and they were 

 consequently not in the least excited. By and by 

 I saw a gannet drop upon the sea just where two 

 gulls were floating, sending a cloud of spray over 

 one bird and causing both to rock and toss about like 

 little white boats in a whirlpool. I could imagine 

 one of those gulls gasping with astonishment and 

 remarking to his fellow : " That was a nice thing, 

 wasn't it ! Coming down on me like that without a 

 by-your-leave ! I suppose if the fish had been swim- 

 ming right under me he would have run me through 

 with his confounded beak ; and when he had shaken 

 me off and seen me floating dead on the water, he 

 would have said that it served me jolly well right for 

 getting in his way ! Certainly these gannets are the 

 greatest brutes out but what fishers ! and what 

 splendid fellows ! " 



Gulls are all robbers by instinct but have not the 

 power and courage of the predaceous Bonxie or Great 



