COMMON GANNET. 231 
trampled down ; the young birds stand everywhere or anywhere ; lazy- 
looking creatures they are, and with an appearance of non-chalance 
which I have never observed in any other species of bird, and which 
would lead you to think that they care as little about the present as 
the future. Now the old birds are freed of part of their cares, they 
drop such fish as they have obtained by the side of their young, and, 
like Cormorants, Pelicans, or Herons, seldom bring a supply oftener 
than once a-day. Strange to say, the young birds at this period do 
not appear to pay the least attention to the old ones, which occasion- 
ally alight near them, and drop fish for them te feed upon. 
Gannets do not feed, as some have supposed, and as many have be- 
lieved, on herring only; for I have found in their stomachs codlings 
eight inches in length, as well as very large American mackerels, 
which, bythe way, are quite different from those so abundantly met with 
on the coasts,of Europe. 
The young never leave the spot on which they have been reared 
until they are well able to fly, when they separate from the old birds, 
and do not rejoin them until at least a year after. Although I have 
in a few instances found individuals yet patched with dark-grey spots, 
and with most of their primary quills still black, I am confident that 
it is not until the end of two years that they acquire their full plu- 
mage. I have seen some with one wing almost pure black, and the 
tail of that colour also ; others with the tail only black; and several 
with pure black feathers interspersed among the general white plu- 
mage. 
I know of no other bird that has so few formidable enemies as the 
Gannet. Not one of the species of Lestris with which I am acquaint- 
ed, ever attempts to molest it; and, although I have seen the Frigate 
Pelican in quest of food within a short distance of it, I never saw it 
offer injury. The insular rocks on which it breeds are of course in- 
accessible to quadrupeds. ‘The only animals, so far as I know, that 
feed on the eggs or young, are the Larus marinus and Larus glaucus. 
It is said that the Skua, Lestris Catarractes, sometimes pursues the 
Gannets, but that species does not exist in North America; and I am 
inclined to doubt the truth of this statement, for I have never seen 
a Lestris of any kind attack a bird equal to itself in size and strength. 
Soon after the young Gannets are able to fly, all the birds of the 
species leave the breeding place, and absent themselves until the fol- 
