FLAMBOROUGH HEAD. 35 



THE GANNET. 



Anybody who has handled a Gannet knows what a heavy bird it is, 

 and may judge with what force it would come down to the earth from 

 a great height in the air. The splash which it makes in fishing, when it 

 simply lets itself fall into the sea, and which is visible from, I should be afraid 

 to say how far, shows what a weight it is. Some years ago I remember 

 having a visible proof of this. I shot a Gannet, which happened to be flying 

 almost directly over my head ; it was very high up, and it fell down onto 

 the rocks among which I was standing, only a few paces from me : on 

 going up to it, I found that its breast was completely rent open ; and it was 

 wdth some difficulty that I sewed it up and cleaned it when I afterwards 

 prepared it for my collection. 



Now the story which this leads up to was an adventure which happened 

 to a fisherman at Flamborough Head ; and I will relate it as he told it to 

 me. He had gone out with his gun ; and he saw two Gannets approaching 

 him. They came within shot ; and he aimed at one, and killed it ; and then, 

 without lowering his gun, he fired his second barrel at the other. It fell ; 

 and at the same instant as it dropped in the air, the Gannet which had been 

 killed by the first shot tumbled on him, and its pointed beak passed through 

 the rim of his " sou'-wester " hat. The man's name was Thomas Leng ; 

 and among all the escapes which that adventurous fellow has had, his 

 friends may well reckon this one of the closest. If his Gannet came down 

 with the force which mine did, I can readily believe that its beak would 

 have gone through a man's skull ; and if it had been an inch on one 

 side, Leng's days would have been numbered. 



F 'J 



