254 PELECANID^. 



THE GANNET. 



Solan Goose. 



Sula Bassana, Briss. 

 Pelecamis Bassamis, Linn. 

 Anser „ Eay. 



8ida alba, Meyer and Wolf. 



May be seen on most parts of tlie coast in summer and 

 autumn : — it breeds on one of the Skellig islands. 



Considering that there is only this one breeding-haunt on the 

 coast, it is singular that gannets should even in summer be spread 

 as they are around the entire island ; — as personal observation 

 and communications from the north, east, south, and west attest 

 them to be. Herrings are generally considered to be their chief 

 attraction, and when they are " on the coast " the birds are 

 beheved to be most numerous. "When anywhere about the 

 northern coast of Down, and along that of Antrim, at the more 

 genial season of the year, the gannet has almost daily come under 

 my observation -, and several were always in sight from the boat 

 as we proceeded from Donaghadee to the Copeland Islands. On 

 June the 13th, 1832, it was noted that from five till six o'clock 

 in the morning we saw many gannets on wing when on our way to 

 the Mew Island, one of the tlu-ee bearing the former name : — 

 several alighted one after the other on the water until they formed 

 a small flock, when they continued swimming together. They aU 

 descended in a very oblique line (about seventy-five degrees), and 

 not perpendicularly, as they usually do when fishing. Although 



beautiful sight, a flock consisting of from two to three hundred of these birds, which 

 he saw about the 10th of September, 1840, tiying southward in the vicinity of 

 Smp'na : the form of the flock varied much, being sometimes cresceutic, at others 

 a straight line, &c. 



In the Surrey Zoological Garden I once (April 1834) remarked five of these birds 

 engaged for some time going partially under water in concert, after the manner of 

 tame swans. 



