Class IL G A N N E T. 



" from a height of a hundred and fifty feet or more 

 " into the water. About four years ago, one of 

 " thefe birds flying over Penzance, (a thing that 

 " rarely happens) and feeing fome pilchards lying 

 " on a fir-plank, in a cellar ufed for curing fifh, 

 " darted itfelf down with fuch violence, that it 

 " ftruck its bill quite through the board (about 

 " an inch and a quarter thick) and broke its neck." 



Thefe birds are fometimes taken at fea by a 

 deception of the like kind. The filhermen fallen 

 a pilchard to a board, and leave it floating ; which 

 inviting bait decoys the unwary Gannet to its own 

 deftruction. 



In the Cataracla of Juba * may be found many 

 characters of this bird : he fays, that the bill is 

 toothed : that its eyes are fiery ; and that its color 

 is white : and in the very name is expreffed its 

 furious defcent on its prey. The reft of his ac- 

 counts favors of fable. 



We are uncertain whether the Gannet breeds in 

 any other parts of Europe befides our own iflands ; 

 except (as Mr. Ray fufpects, the Sula, defcribed in 

 Clujius's Exotics, which breeds in the Ferroe IJles) 

 be the fame bird. In America there are two fpecies 

 of birds of this genus, that bear a great refem- 

 blance to it in their general form and their man- 

 ner of preying. Mr. Catejby has given the figure 

 of the head of one, which he calls the Greater 



* Plinii, lib. x. c. 44, 



Booby ; 



