GANNETS. 109 
is quite common on our coast in the autumn and spring, and through the 
greater part of the winter. Audubon, in describing its breeding habits, 
says, — 
“ The newly-finished nest of this bird is fully two feet high, and quite as 
broad externally. It is composed of sea-weeds and maritime grasses, the 
former being, at times, brought from considerable distances. Thus, the 
e 
2 
Gannets breeding on the rocks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence carry weeds 
from the Magdalene Islands, which are about thirty miles distant. The 
grasses are pulled or dug up from the surface of the breeding-place itself, 
often in great clods, consisting of roots and earth, and leaving holes not 
unlike the entrances to the burrows of the puffin. The nests, like those of 
the cormorants, are enlarged or repaired annually. The single ego, of a 
rather elongated oval form, averages 375 inches in leneth, by 2 inches in 
its greatest breadth; and is covered with an irregular, roughish coating of 
white caleareous matter, which, on being scraped off, leaves exposed the pale 
ereenish-blue tint of the under surface.” 
The Gannet breeds in almost incredible numbers on some of the rocky 
islands near the coast of Labrador. When the breeding season is over, it 
wanders as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. Its mode of flight is power- 
ful, and, at times, graceful. Its food consists of fish, principally herrings ; 
these are obtained by plunging from on high, often remaining under water 
for a minute or more at a time. 
The Darters, or Snake Birds, are among the most interesting of this 
group. Buffon, in describing one of them, says, 
“The Arhinza offers us a reptile grafted on the body of a bird.” Those 
who have seen the long neck, and that only issuing from the water, twisting 
about among the herbage, and among the foliage, say that the casual observer 
might well take it for a snake. Vaillant states that the neck of the species 
seen by. him in Africa was always in oscillation when the bird was perched ; 
and that any one, who saw its tortuous movements among the foliage, the 
body being concealed, would take it for one of the tree-serpents. 
Le Vaillant describes them as diving for fish; when they caught a small 
one, it was swallowed whole; when they captured a large one, it was car- 
ried to a rock, or the trunk of a tree, and the bird, fixing it beneath its feet, 
picked it to pieces with its bill. Though the water is their favorite clement, 
it is upon rocks or trees that they establish their nests, and bring up their 
young, taking care that they may be easily precipitated into the river as 
soon as they are able to swim, or whenever the safety of the little family 
requires it. 
The habits of the species of America are similar to those of the Old 
World birds. 
NO. XIV. 67 
