GANNET. 59 



marshes to raise its young. At the St. Clair Flats it breeds abund- 

 antly, its eggs being often apparently neglected, but they are said to 

 be covered by the female at night and in rough weather. 



Dr. Macallum reports it as breeding also on Mohawk Island, 

 though from being frequently disturbed and robbed of its eggs, it is 

 not so numerous as formerly. In the North- West, according to 

 Macoun, it " breeds in all the marshes from Portage la Prairie west- 

 ward, in less numbers in the wooded region, but generally distributed." 



At Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton it occurs as a regular migrant 

 in spring and fall. 



Obder STEGANOPODES. Totipalmate Swimmers. 



Family SULID^. Gannets. 



Genus SULA Beisson. 



.Subgenus DYSPORUS Illiger. 



SULA BASSANA (Linn.). 



30. Gannet. (117) 



Adult male: — White, the head and hind neck tinged with yellowish-brown; 

 primaries, black. Young: — Dark brown, spotted with white ; lower parts, 

 grayish-white. Length, 30 inches. 



Hab. — Coasts of the North Atlantic, south in winter to the Gulf of Mexico 

 and Africa ; breeds from Maine and the British Islands northward. 



Breeds in communities on rocks near the sea. One egg, pale greenish-blue. 



We have very few records of the Gannet, or Solan Goose, in 

 Ontario, because it is a bird of the North Atlantic, where it is found 

 on the shores on both sides, on the east, perhaps, in greater abund- 

 ance than on the west. 



Many years ago, an individual of this species was found in Hamil- 

 ton Bay in a state of extreme exhaustion, after a severe "north- 

 easter." In the proceedings of the Canadian Institute for 1890, it is 

 stated, "one specimen in immature plumage was shot at Oshawa, 

 Ontario, in 1862, by Mr. A. Dulmage," which, so far as I know, 

 completes the list for the Province. 



These birds are in the habit of breeding in colonies on large 

 isolated rocks, which are called Gannet Rocks, wherever they occur. 

 One of these is situated oif the coast of Maine, southward of Grand 



