S96 GANNET CORVORANT. Class II. 



stage of life : but in his last edition he very 

 properly separates them. We continue it in 

 the same class, under the generical name of 

 Corvorants, as more familiar to the English 

 ear than that of Pelecaii.* 



(Var.) XHIS variety of the Gannet was sent to 

 me in August 1779, by Hugh Stodart, Esq. 

 of Tregamvy, in Caernarvonshir^e. I do not 

 recollect that it has been observed in Europe 

 since the days of Dr. Hoier, a physician at 

 Bergen, who procured it from the Ferroe Isles, 

 and transmitted it to his friend Clusius. 



This bird differs from the common Gan- 

 net only in those particulars : in having some 

 of the secondaries feathers black ; and the mid- 

 dle feathers of the tail of the same color : where- 

 as both, in the common sort, are entirely white. 



* The Gannet is supplied with singular pellucid air-cells 

 ■which connect the skin with the body, giving it a power of in- 

 flation, which materially contributes to its buoyancy in air and 

 water, and enables it to float in the most tempestuous sea in per- 

 fect security, when in pursuit of its prey. Montagu in Memoirs 

 of Wernerian Society. 



