258 pelecanid.-f:. 



element^ the ambient air, and if \he pnrsned touch but the sur- 

 face of the water, it proves an altar of safety against the as- 

 saihant ; but the gannet procures its food not only in another 

 element, but, from a great elevation in the air perceives it 

 far beneath the surface of the sea, majestically poises itself, and, 

 direct as a plummet, shoots into the deep with an impetus that 

 forces a jet of water into the air, and leaves behind a circle of 

 snowy foam conspicuous from a great distance. The more in- 

 telligent fishermen of Belfast Bay always like to see the gannet 

 when they arc lierring-fishing, as they set their nets according 

 to the height above the \\ater from which it plunges ; the greater 

 tlie elevation of the bird in the air, the lower in the water the nets 

 are sunk. The extreme depth of water in which the gannet can 

 see its prey from on high must be somewhat conjectural ; but that 

 numbers of these birds have been taken in nets at a depth of 

 180 feet is fully proven. On this subject I contributed the fol- 

 lowing notes to ' Charlesworth's Magazine of Natural History,' in 

 January 1838 (vol. ii. p. 19) : — 



Having heard from two friends, who were grouse-shooting in the 

 neighbourhood of Ballantrae, that they had seen great numbers of 

 gannets lying in a state of decay, in holes on the beach, and that these 

 birds had been taken at extraordinary depths in the fishermen's nets, 

 I made particular inquiry on the subject from a worthy resident of niy 

 acquaintance (postmaster, &c., of the viUage), and on the 15th of 

 November, 1836, received the following reply : — "Gannets are very 

 commonly caught about Ballantrae (chiefly in the month of March) 

 in the fishermen's nets, which are generally sunk from nine to tAventy, 

 but sometimes to the depth of thirty fathoms,* just as the fish, her- 

 rings, &c., are lying. They are taken at all these depths, when the 

 water is rough as well as smooth, and in both the cod and turbot nets 

 (respectively five and seven inches wide in the mesh). Of the greatest 

 quantity taken at one time, ' John, son of old Alex. Coulter, can make 

 oath, that he took ninety-four gannets from one net, at a single haul, 

 a few years ago. The net was about sixty fathoms long, a cod-net, 

 Avrooght in a five-inch scale. The birds brought up the net, witli its 



* Ouc hundred and eiglify feet ; there beiug six feet in a fathom. 



