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" Macgillivray has well described the mode of flight of the Solan Geese in the following 

 words ; — ' In launching from the cliffs, they frequently utter a single plaintive cry, perform a 

 curve, having its concavity upwards, then shake the tail, frequently the whole plumage, draw 

 the feet backwards, placing them close under the tail on each side, and cover them with the 

 feathers. In some the feet were entirely covered, while in others parts of the toes were apparent. 

 In flying, the body, tail, neck, and bill are nearly in a straight line, the wings extended, and 

 never brought close to the body, and they move by regular flappings, alternating with regular 

 sailings. In alighting, they generally ascend in a long curve, keeping their feet spread, and 

 come down rather heavily, often finding it difficult to balance themselves, and sometimes, when 

 the place is very steep, or when another bird attacks them, flying off to try a second time.' 

 The Gannet appears to have considerable difficulty in taking wing when on low ground; and 

 hence individuals which have flown inland and alighted are not uncommonly captured. Thus 

 Willughby informs us that the bird he described ' was taken alive near Coleshil, a market-town 

 in Warwickshire;' and many similar instances are on record. 



" As has been truly said by a late eminent naturalist, ' the early and more recent records of 

 the Gannet are full of fond inventions ;' and nowhere is this assertion more fully borne out than 

 in the extravagant accounts that have been given regarding its powers of diving. The late 

 William Thompson, for example, in his admirable ' Natural History of Ireland,' states, on the 

 authority of a postmaster at Ballantrae, in Ayrshire, that Gannets have been taken in nets at 

 depths of 180 feet in that neighbourhood. Now it seems entirely inconceivable that a Gannet, 

 if ever it penetrated to such a depth, could ever come to the surface again ; and even if it were 

 capable of doing so, it is extremely improbable, to say the least, that it would take such an 

 amount of trouble to procure prey that might be obtained so much more easily. Several 

 eminent authors have gone to the other extreme, and deny that the Gannet ever dives at all ; 

 but I can testify from personal observation that this is incorrect. 



" Owing to the extreme power of dilatation which its oesophagus possesses, the bird is 

 capable of swallowing fish of very considerable dimensions. Its food in the Firth of Forth and 

 the other Scottish localities where it occurs, consists principally of herrings, and, in the English 

 Channel, of pilchards. A specimen which I obtained last winter, and which was kept alive for 

 a few days, was fed on herrings which had been previously extracted from the stomach of a Seal ; 

 these it swallowed very rapidly head foremost. Its powers of digestion seemed to be vigorous ; 

 for on examining its stomach after it was killed it was found to be nearly empty, with the 

 exception of cod-hooks, which must have been swallowed some time previously and were con- 

 siderably worn. Not rarely it becomes so gorged with food as to be unable to rise from the 

 surface of the water, on which it reposes in a lethargic state ; and while in this condition it may 

 be easily run down and captured if advanced upon in a boat. It is scarcely necessary to mention 

 that the statement of Pennant and other writers, that the Gannet possesses a gular pouch 

 similar to that of the Pelican, and capable of containing five or six herrings, is entirely without 

 foundation. The old bird, according to Macgillivray, at first feeds its young ' with a kind of fish 

 soup prepared in its gullet and stomach, and which it introduces drop by drop, as it were, into 

 its throat. But when its nursling is pretty well grown, it places its bill within its mouth and 

 disgorges the fish entire or in fragments. They never carry fish to the rock in their bills.' The 



