68 
PELICANID.f:. 
tion, watches its prey, and shoots either in a perpendicular 
or a slanting direction, with the wings closed, into the 
liquid element, and, pouncing upon it, rarely misses its 
aim, and emerges soon again at a little distance from 
whence it disappeared. Some ornithologists state that 
the bird when winged, and being pursued in a boat, dives, 
being urged by necessity, and thus evades pursuit. The 
flight of the Gannet is performed sometimes by quick 
strokes of the wings, and at others by skimming through 
the air in the manner of hawks or swifts. The appetite 
of the Gannet is very great, in consequence of which this 
bird is frequently caught in the nets of fishermen, where 
herrings are the object of both. 
This bird also frequently robs the slow-flying gulls 
of their game, and sometimes devours, in its eagerness, 
more than it can comfortably manage, and is obliged to 
remain floating on the surface of the water in such a 
helpless state, that boatmen pick them up with ease. 
The numbers that are annually taken by persons who 
make it their business is very great; and their feathers 
or down are very valuable. In Scotland, the bodies are 
sold for twenty pence each, and eaten by the inhabitants 
a short time before dinner, in order to create an appetite; 
but the flesh being of a very fishy flavour would hardly 
increase the enjoyment of a dinner in the estimation of 
an inhabitant of southern Britain. 
In the spring of the year, the numbers of Gannets that 
congregate on the rocks amount to thousands upon thou¬ 
sands, and give them the appearance of being covered 
with snow, and the immense swarms that fly about perfectly 
overshadow the ground. In eonsequence of the care that 
is taken that no shot is fired at the Gannets within a 
certain distance of their breeding places, the same flocks 
