232 COMMON GANNET. 
lowing season. While at Newfoundland, I was told that the English 
and French fishermen who inhabit that country salt young Gannets for — 
winter provision, as is done in Scotland; but I sawnone there. In my 
estimation, the flesh of this bird is so bad that, as long as any other can 
be procured, it ought to be rejected. 
Tt is a curious fact, that the Gannets often procure mackerels or 
herrings four or five weeks before the fishermen fall in with them on 
our coast; but this is easily explained by their extensive wanderings. 
Although this bird is easily kept in captivity, it is far from being a 
pleasant pet. Its ordure is abundant, disagreeable to the eye as well 
as the nose; its gait is awkward; and even its pale owl-like eyes glare 
on you with an unpleasant expression. Add to this, the expense of its 
food, and I can easily conceive that you will not give it a place in your 
aviary, unless for the mere amusement of seeing it catch the food thrown 
to it, which it does like a dog. 
The feathers of the lower parts of the Gannet differ from those of 
most other birds, in being extremely convex externally, which gives 
the bird the appearance of being covered beneath with light shell-work, 
exceedingly difficult to be represented in a drawing. 
My highly esteemed and talented friend Wittiam MaceiLiivray 
having given a full account of the habits of the Gannet, as observed 
on the Bass Rock in Scotland, I here present it to you. 
“ The Bass is an abrupt rock, having a basis of about a mile in cir- 
cumference, and of an oblong form. The cliffs are perpendicular in 
some places, overhanging in others, and everywhere precipitous, ex- 
cepting at the narrow extremity next the land, where, sloping less 
abruptly, they form at the base a low projection, on which is the only 
landing-place. Above this are the ruins of the fortifications and houses, 
the Bass having formerly been used as a State-prison. The rocks are 
in some places apparently two hundred feet in height, and the summit, 
towards which the surface rises in an irregular manner, is probably a 
hundred and fifty feet higher. In as far as I observed, the whole mass 
is of a uniform structure, consisting of trap, intermediate between 
greenstone and clinkstone, of a duil brownish-red colour, and small 
granular structure. Although a great portion of the upper surface of 
the island is composed of rock, there is an abundant vegetation, con- 
sisting chiefly of Festuca ovina, F’. duriuscula, and a few other grasses, 
mixed with the plants usually found in maritime situations. 
