Class H. GANNET CORVORANT. 295 



many characters of this bird : he says, that the 

 bill is toothed, that its eyes are fiery, and that 

 its color is white ; and in the very name is ex- 

 pressed its furious descent on its prey. The rest 

 of his accounts savors of fable. i \: - 



We are uncertain whether the Gannet breeds 

 in any other parts of Europe besides our own 

 islands ; except (as Mr. Ray suspects) the Sula, ,., f ; > 

 described in Clusius's Ei'otics, which breeds in ••--'- 

 the Ferroe Isles, be the same bird. In America 

 there are two species of birds of this genus, 

 that bear a great resemblance to it in their ge- 

 neral form and their manner of preying. Mr. 

 Catesby has given the figure of the head of one, 

 which he calls the Greater Booby ; his descrip- 

 tion suits that of the young Gannet ; but the 

 angle on the lower mandible made us formerly 

 suspect that it was not the same bird; from 

 some late informations we have been favored 

 with, we find it is common to both countries, 

 and during summer frequents North America. 

 Like the Penguin, it informs navigators of the 

 approach of soundings, who on sight of it drop 

 the plummet. Linncsus classes our bird with 

 the Pelecan ; in the tenth edition of his system, 

 he confounds it with the bird described by Sir 

 Hans Sloane, hist. Jam. vol. i. p. 31. preface^ 

 whose colors differ firom the Gannet in each 



