PWR eL Cy AY oN, 
Pelecanus Baffanus, Ind. Orn. ii. p. 891. 26.—-Ger. Orn. Vv. t. 515, 
Gannet, Gen. Syn. vi. p» 608. 25.——Tour in Scott. 1769, pl. inp. 199. 
T has been obferved, that when thefe birds pafs from place ta 
place, which they are fomctimes obferved to do in flocks, from 
five to fifteen each, they keep low, near the fhore, but never pafs 
ever the land, on the contrary, doubling the capes and projecting 
parts, keeping at.nearly the fame diftance. It has been before men- 
tioned, that at Saint Kilda, the inhabitants hold them in much eftima- 
tion. Mr. Pennant fays, that the natives tie a herring toa board, and 
fet it afloat, fo that the Gawwet, by falling furioufly upon it, may break 
its neck in the attempt, This, however, appears to be unlawful, for 
the fattening herrings thus to planks at fea, to catch the Soland Goof, 
is forbidden under a fevere penalty. It is an unfatiably voracious bird, 
difdaining to eat any thing worfe than Herrings or Mackarel, unlefs it 
be in a very hungry place, which it endeavours to avoid or abandon: 
an hundred thoufand of them are fuppofed to be round the rocks 
of Saint Kilda, which is far too moderate, as 20,000 of them are _ 
killed annually for food, including the young ones ; and we {hall fup- 
pofe that the So/and Goofe fojourns in thefe feas for about feven 
months of the year, and that each of them deftroys five herrings in a 
day, a fubfiftence by no means adequate to fo greedy a creature, un- 
lefs more than half fupported by other fifh. Here we have 105,c00,000 
of the fineft fifhes in the world devoured annually by one fingle fpecies 
of Saint Kilda birds *. 
The Gannet, before it gains its white plumage, is brown, moft 
beautifully fpotted all over with white; one of thefe was taken alive 
near me in September 1798: it weighed three pounds and a quarter; 
length three feet ; breadth fix feet: irides blueifh grey. It was on the 
whole fo exactly like the bird reprefented in pl. 986 of the P/, Ea- 
tuminées, as to render any further defcription unneceffary. 
© See Buchanan’s View of the Fithery of Great Britain. 
365 
4. 
GANNET. 
DescriPTion. 
