THE GANNET — GULLS. Ij57. 



of thirty-five pounds. The eggs are not collected, and no old 

 bird is allowed to be shot, under a penalty of five pounds ; only 

 the young birds are persecuted. The chase begins on the 1st of 

 August. They are taken with the hand or knocked on the head 

 with sticks, and sent to the Edinburgh market, where they fetch 

 about half a crown a piece. The gannet breeds also on Lundy 

 Island, in the Severn, on Ailsa, on the coast of Ayrshire, on the 

 island of St. Kilda, and hardly anywhere else in Europe. As it 

 must let itself fall before taking wing, it requires a steep and 

 precipitous breeding-station. Its mode of fishing is particularly 

 graceful. Eapidly skimming the surface of the sea, as soon as 

 it spies a fish swimming below, it rises perpendicularly over the 

 spot, and then, suddenly folding its wings, drops head-foremost 

 on its prey swifter than an arrow, and with almost unerring aim. 

 The prevalent colour of the full-plumaged bird is white, the 

 tips of its wings only being black, and some black lines about 

 the face, resembling eyebrows or spectacles. The pale yellow 

 eyes are encircled with a naked skin of fine blue, the head and 

 neck are buff colour, the legs black, and greenish on the fore 

 part. The plumage of the young bird is very different, being 

 blackish, dotted irregularly with small white specks. 



The family of the Laridse, which comprises the gulls, the 

 sea-swallows, the petrels, and the albatrosses, is widely spread 

 over the whole surface of the ocean. All the birds of this 

 tribe have a powerful flight, and are distinguished by the 

 easy grace of their motions, striking the air at long intervals 

 with their wings, and generally gliding or soaring with out- 

 stretched pinions. Their form is handsome and well-propor- 

 tioned, some of them resembling the swallow, others the dove; 

 but their mode of life does not correspond with their beauty, as 

 they are all ill-famed for their predatory habits and insatiable 

 voracity. The cry of the sea-mew is peculiar, being a mixture 

 of screaming and laughing. When in the solitude of a wild 

 rocky coast it is heard mingling with the hoarse rolling of the 

 surge and the moaning wind, it harmonises well with the cha- 

 racter of the dreary scene, and produces a not unpleasing effect. 

 It is amusing to witness the movements of the sea-mews at the 

 mouths of the larger rivers, where they are seen in numbers, 

 picking up the animal substances which are cast on shore, or 

 come floating down with the ebbing tide. Such as are near 

 the breakers will mount up the surface of the water, and run 



