30 Y.N.U. Meetings of the Vertebrate Zoology Section. 
and even a third in a season. The composition of the shell of the egg was 
explained, and it was stated that Mr. Drane, of the Cardiff Naturalists’ 
Society, had demonstrated that it only required the lime derived from 
1 lb. of fish to form a Gannet’s egg. The earliest eggs were laid by the 
end of March, but April was the usual month for general laying. Incuba- 
tion lasted forty-two to forty-four days. Mr. Campbell had marked an 
egg laid on April 22nd, which hatched on June 5th, or in forty-four days. 
Gannets were said to cover the egg with their foot when incubating ; 
and the absence of a ‘ hatching-spot’ on their breast tended to confirm 
this; but against this theory is the fact that Cormorants and Shags 
of the same family, and which lay four to six eggs, have no ‘ hatching- 
spot’ either. The young when first hatched are blind, naked and helpless, 
and are slaty-black in colour. May roth was the earliest date for hatching, 
the normal period being the end of June. Both sexes assist in incubating. 
The eyes of the nestling open on the eighth day, and by the tenth day 
they are clothed in a dense white down. The wing feathers begin to appear 
on the twentieth day, and the birds commence to grow very fat about the 
thirtieth day. About a month later they are considered to be in the right 
condition for killing—that is where they are still used for human food, 
as on the island of St. Kilda. Two months after hatching, the old birds 
cease to feed the young. This is necessary, as otherwise they would be 
so heavy and unweildy as to be unable to leave the rock. About ten days 
after this the young birds leave the nesting ledges and fly on to the sea 
below, where they remain drifting about for between two and three weeks, 
still unable to feed themselves, and still existing upon their accummulated 
store of fat. Towards the end of this period, their wings having grown 
strong enough, they commence fishing for themselves. Their plumage is 
now greyish, or blackish-brown, spotted with white triangular spots at 
the end of each feather. Nearly three months elapse from hatching before 
the young birds leave the nesting ledges, and about four months before 
they are fully able to fish for themselves. 
The operation of the old birds feeding the young has been witnessed by 
very few persons, and it evidently takes place very early in the morning. 
Mr. Campbell has, however, recently been able to obtain a photograph of a 
Gannet feeding a young one. Full plumage is not attained until after the 
fifth moult, and the birds never breed until they have assumed the adult 
attire; although birds in the last garb of immaturity may frequently 
be seen carrying nesting materials about in their beaks. Variation from 
type is rare amongst Gannets, but an adult bird was photographed on 
the Bass Rock this summer which varied considerably in colour. It was 
nesting, and was paired to one of the normal type. Mr. Fortune stated 
that in damp weather it is necessary to exercise great care in photographing 
Gannets at their breeding - haunts, owing to the precipitous and foul 
surroundings. On a wet day the young birds were in a miserable and 
bedraggled state, yet if the following day should be fine, they would be 
just as clean and white as ever. He remarked that the Gannets had not 
yet acquired the habit of dropping on to the skull of the photographer 
with their powerful beaks, as individual Terns and Gulls occasionally do ; 
or photographs of Gannets nesting would be very scarce ! 
Mr. George Parkin exhibited a finely mounted and excellent specimen 
of an immature partially albino Starling, and of a Green Sandpiper, both 
from the neighbourhood of Wakefield. 
A keen discussion arose after a paper by Mr. Thos. M. Fowler, on 
* Recent Notes on a Young Cuckoo,’ and was partly the outcome of a paper 
read at the previous meeting of the Section (vide ‘ The Naturalist,’ 1910, 
pp- 133-134). Last summer Mr. Fowler carefully watched, day by day, 
a Hedge Sparrow’s nest in which a Cuckoo's egg had been deposited, and 
had taken photographs from time to time, which were shewn. 
It seems that on June roth, the nest contained one egg ; on June 11th 
two eggs; June 13th, three eggs of the Hedge-Sparrow and an egg of the 
Cuckoo ; on June 14th four Hedge-Sparrows’ eggs and that of the Cuckoo. 
Naturalist, 
