172 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
seen on Walney Island, in Morecambe Bay; but they are not known to breed there. 
In Ireland, Gannets frequent the Skellig Islands, off Kerry, and the Bull Rock, off 
the coast of Cork. In most of these localities, they congregate in immense colonies. 
On Ailsa Craig and the Bull Rock, about six thousand pairs breed annually, at the 
present time. In former years, the colony on the latter was greater; even in 1862 it 
was estimated that there were twenty thousand birds on the rock; on the North Barra 
fifty thousand; while on the Stack, west of Stromness, twenty-five thousand couples, 
it is reckoned, breed every year. 
Beyond our Isles, the Gannet—the sole Northern Hemisphere species— 
has, in Europe, breeding colonies on the most western of the Feeroes, and 
several of the small islands off the Iceland coasts; and is found along the 
western coasts of Norway, and in the Baltic and North Seas. It migrates 
southward in October, spending the winter along the Continental shores, as far 
south as Madeira. It occasionally visits the Mediterranean. On the other side of 
the Atlantic, the bird congregates, in its usual great colonies, at a few stations; the 
principal being a rocky islet, in the Bay of Fundy, and on Gannet Island, in the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. It ranges north to Greenland in summer, cruizing south- 
ward along the coast as far as Mexico, during the winter months. While the 
bulk of the Gannets migrate southwards during the colder months of the year, a 
few remain, through the winter, in residence on their breeding stations, but hardly 
in sufficient numbers to break the desolation and silence that fall upon their 
habitation at that season. 
With spring’s return, the myriad Gannets far dispersed along the shores of the 
calmer southern:seas, are seized simultaneously with that mysterious and irresistible 
longing, that yearly falls upon them, for their bleaker northern homes; then 
suddenly, on some late April morning, the winter silence of these sea-girt isles be- 
comes a babel, and their desolate ledges throng with their old tenants, instinct with 
parental yearnings. The business of making fresh, or repairing old, nests begins 
at once, and soon every suitable platform is occupied. The feathers of the head 
‘and neck now assume a brighter buff, greatly enhancing the Gannet’s looks. 
The nests are composed entirely of turf, grass, and sea-weeds, mostly the commoner 
fuct; and are either very slight structures in a depression on the ground, or 
conical piles, sometimes of considerable height, with a shallow cavity in the centre, 
in which is deposited, early in May, a single oval egg, with a rough chalky surface, 
and of a dull white colour. Its white colour is early lost, beneath the filth with 
which, in a few days, it is smeared. Indeed, soon after the arrival of the birds, 
the whole station becomes disgusting, and almost unapproachable, by reason of the 
fetid stench of the bird’s excrement, and the decomposing remains of disgorged fish. 
