172 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



seen on Walney Island, in Morecambe Bay; bnt they are not known to breed there. 

 In Ireland, Gannets freqnent the Skellig Islands, off Kerry, and the Bnll Rock, off 

 the coast of Cork. In most of these localities, the}' congregate in immense colonies. 

 On Ailsa Craig and the Bnll Rock, about six thonsand pairs breed annuall}-, at the 

 present time. In former years, the colon}' on the latter was greater; even in 1862 it 

 was estimated that there were twenty thonsand birds on the rock ; on the North Barra 

 fifty thonsand ; while on the Stack, west of Stromness, twenty-five thonsand conples, 

 it is reckoned, breed every year. 



Be3'ond oiir Isles, the Gannet — the sole Northern Hemisphere species — 

 has, in Enrope, breeding colonies on the most western of the Fseroes, and 

 several of the small islands off the Iceland coasts ; and is found along the 

 western coasts of Norway, and in the Baltic and North Seas. It migrates 

 southward in October, spending the winter along the Continental shores, as far 

 south as IMadeira. It occasionally visits the Mediterranean. On the other side of 

 the Atlantic, the bird congregates, in its usual great colonies, at a few stations; the 

 principal being a rocky islet, in the Bay of Fundy, and on Gannet Island, in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. It ranges north to Greenland in summer, cruizing south- 

 ward along the coast as far as Mexico, during the winter months. While the 

 bulk of the Gannets migrate southwards during the colder months of the year, a 

 few remain, through the winter, in residence on their breeding stations, but hardly 

 in sufiicient numbers to break the desolation and silence that fall upon their 

 habitation at that season. 



With spring's return, the myriad Gannets far dispersed along the shores of the 

 calmer southern seas, are seized simultaneoiisly with that mysterious and irresistible 

 longing, that yearly falls upon them, for their bleaker northern homes ; then 

 suddenly, on some late April morning, the winter silence of these sea-girt isles be- 

 comes a babel, and their desolate ledges throng with their old tenants, instinct with 

 parental yearnings. The business of making fresh, or repairing old, nests begins 

 at once, and soon every suitable platform is occupied. The feathers of the head 

 and neck now assume a brighter buff, greatly enhancing the Gannet's looks. 

 The nests are composed entirely of turf, grass, and sea-weeds, mostly the commoner 

 Fuci ; and are either very slight structures in a depression on the ground, or 

 conical piles, sometimes of considerable height, with a shallow cavity in the centre, 

 in which is deposited, early in May, a single oval egg, with a rough chalky surface, 

 and of a dull white colour. Its white colour is early lost, beneath the filth with 

 which, in a few days, it is smeared. Indeed, soon after the arrival of the birds, 

 the whole station becomes disgusting, and almost unapproachable, by reason of the 

 fetid stench of the bird's excrement, and the decomposing remains of disgorged fish. 



