THE GANNET. 20 1 



Oil the 10th of March ; during the whiter months of the season 

 184-9-50, not one was observed. The obHque mode of descent 

 when fishing, is Kttle known, but it is unquestionably sometimes 

 practised. A fisherman under whose notice gannets almost daily 

 come in the season within the entrance of Belfast Bay, is of 

 opinion (and doubtless correctly so) that they descend obliquely 

 when their prey is in shallow water ; — as in fishing for sand-eels 

 at the depth of a few feet, and for herring fry at or near the 

 surface. In very deep water likewise, they occasionally strike 

 obliquely. 



Gannets have been taken about Horn Head in the old-fashioned 

 manner, by a fish fastened to a strong piece of board which is 

 floated, and the bird coming down from a height in the air on 

 the prey, has its neck dislocated. A fine adult bird was found 

 upon the shore there with its neck thus broken a day or two be- 

 fore our visit at the end of June 1832. It is remarked by 

 Mr. John Macgillivray that — " The force with which the gannet 

 plunges from on wing in pursuit of a fish is astonishingly great. 

 The following story, illustrating this i)oint, was related to me by 

 more than one person, both in St. Kilda and Harris, and I 

 believe to be true. Several years ago, an open boat was returning 

 from St. Kilda to Harris, and a few herrings happened to be lying 

 in the bottom, close to the edge of the ballast. A gannet passing 

 overhead, stopping for a moment, suddenly darted down upon the 

 fish, and passed through the bottom of the boat as far as the 

 middle of the body, which, being retained in that position by one 

 of the crew, effectually stopped the leak, until they had reached 

 their destination.""^ Whether or not we give credence to this 

 story, the following will not, I fear, pass current. OTlaherty, in 

 his ' West or H-Iar Connaught,' written in 1684, informs us that 

 — " Here the ganet soares high into the sky to espy his prey in 

 the sea under him, at which he casts himself headlong into the 

 sea, and swallows up whole herrings in a morsell. This bird ilys 

 through the ship's sailes, piercing them with his beak'' (p. 12). t 



* Description of ilie Island of St. Kild.-i, ' Edin. Phil, .lourn.' January 1813, p. fiO 

 t Published by the Irisb ArcluBological Society, in 1846. 



