230 COMMON GANNET. 
ous gale or a thick cold fog mar the beauty of the day, she gathers 
her apparel around her, and shrinks deeper into her bed; and should — 
it rain, she places her body so as to prevent the inundation of ‘her 
household. How happy, Reader, must she be when now and then her 
keen eyes distinguish in the crowd her affectionate mate, as he returns 
from the chase, with loaded bill, and has already marked ‘her among 
the thousand beauties all equally anxious for the arrival of their lords ! 
Now by her side he alights as gently as is in his nature, presents her 
with a welcome repast, talks perhaps cheeringly to her, and again 
opening his broad wings departs in search of a shoal of herrings. At 
length, the oval chest opens, and out crawls the tender young ; but lo! 
the little thing is black. What a strange contrast to the almost pure 
white of the parent! Yet the mother loves it, with all the tender- 
ness of other mothers. She has anxiously expected its appearance, 
and at once she nurses it with care; but so tender is it that she pre- 
fers waiting a while before she feeds it. The time however soon comes, 
and with exceeding care she provides some well macerated morsels 
which she drops into its open mouth; so well prepared are they that 
there is no instance on record of a Gannet, even of that tender age, 
having suffered from dyspepsia or indigestion. 
The male Gannet assists in incubating, though he sits less assi- 
duously than the female; and, on such occasions, the free bird sup- 
plies the other with food. The sight of the young Gannet just af- 
ter birth might not please the eye of many, for it is then quite naked, 
and of a deep bluish-black, much resembling a young Cormorant. 
Its abdomen is extremely large, its neck thin, its head large, its eyes 
as yet sightless, its wings but slightly developed. When you look at 
it three weeks afterwards, it has grown much, and almost entirely 
changed its colour, for, now, with the exception of certain parts of the 
neck, the short thighs, and the belly, it is covered with yellowish soft 
and thick down. In this state it looks perhaps as uncouth as at first, 
but it grows so rapidly that at the end of three weeks more, you find 
its downy coat patched with feathers in the most picturesque manner 
imaginabie. Looking around you, you observe that all the young are 
not of the same growth; for all the Gannets do not lay on the same 
day, and probably all the young are not equally supplied with food. 
At this period, the great eyrie looks as if all its parts had become 
common property ; the nests, which were once well fashioned are 
gee So 
