Class II. GANNET CORVORANT. 2Q1 



their whole dependance on the uncertain foot- 

 ing of one person who holds the rope, by which 

 they are suspended at the top of the precipice. 

 The young birds are a favorite dish with the 

 North Britons in general: during the season 

 they are constantly brought from the Bass Isle / 

 to Edinburgh, sold at SOfl'. a-piece, are roasted, 

 and served up a little before dinner as a whet. 



The Gannets are birds of passage. Their [ 

 first appearance in those islands is in March ; 

 their continuance there till August or Septem- 

 ber, according as the inhabitants take or leave 

 their first egg; but in general, the time of 

 breeding, and that of their departure, seems to 

 coincide with the arrival of the herring, and 

 the migration of that fish (which is their prin- 

 cipal food) out of those seas. It is probable 

 that these birds attend the herring* and pilchard 

 during their whole circuit round the British 

 islands ; the appearance of the former being al- 

 ways esteemed by the fishermen as a sure pre- 

 sage of the approach of the latter. They migrate 

 in quest of food as far south as the mouth of the 

 TaguSy being frequently seen off Lisbon during 

 the month of December, plunging for Sardinia, 



* Buchanan, in his " View of the Fishery of Great Britain," 

 conjectures that the Gannets which frequent the island of St. 

 Kilda destroy annually one hundred and five millions of her- 

 rings. Ed. 



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