'IQO FELECANID.E. 



a distance of two or three hundred yards, alighted, and remained 

 there for one or two minutes preening themselves, and again 

 returned to the fishing-ground. My informant supposes this rest to 

 be necessary after the exhaustion caused by their descent. He has 

 observed them when apparently about to poise themselves previous 

 to making the plunge, fly away obliquely (though not alight), as if 

 they saw they had no chance of securing their intended prey ; 

 but, once the plunge was made, the object never escaped. They 

 not only remained a long time under water, but emerged at a 

 considerable distance from where they disappeared,^ 



The Eev. G. M. Black, writing from Annalong, at the sea-base of 

 the mountains of Mourne, in October, 1849, observes: — " Gan- 

 nets are frequent on the coast, and I spend often some half-hours 

 in watching them fishing. Their power of sight must be amazing, 

 as, no matter how rough the sea may be, it seems to make no 

 difference to them. The fishermen say they know on what kind 

 of fish they are ' working ' by the manner in which they ' strike / 

 if on herring or grey gurnard, slow -swimming fish, as I believe, 

 they ascend perpendicularly, or nearly so, but if on mackerel, ob- 

 liquely. One which happened to be caught asleep on the water 

 (which is often the case) during the mackerel season, was brought 

 on board the boat and tied by the leg to one of the ' thafts." To 

 test its appetite some fish were thrown to it, when, without ' draw- 

 ing breath/ it swallowed four full-grown mackerel, and probably 

 would have disposed of more, had not the fishermen thought it 

 had had enough, at least for one meal. They must breed very 

 early, as I have observed, in the end of May, young birds quite 

 strong on the wing, and fishing with the old ones. In winter I 

 occasionally see the old birds, and them only." 



Having requested my correspondent to note the dates of these 

 birds being seen, he reported the last one in 1819, to have ap- 

 peared on the 15th of November, and the first one in the spring 



* Audubon, having shot a gannet just as it emerged with a fish in its bill, and 

 having found two others half-way dovfn its throat, remarks, — " This has induced me 

 to believe that it sometimes follows its prey in the water, and seizes several fishes in 

 giicees&ioa " (vol. iv. p. 227). This author gives an excellent account of the gauiitl. 



