4&4 G A N N E T. Clafs II. 



*' down to us through St. George's channel from tha 

 * c northern feas. The Garnet feldom comes near the 

 " Jand, but is conftant to its prey, a fure fign to the 

 * l filhermen that the pilchards are on the coafts •, and 

 * 6 when the pilchards retire, generally about the end 

 €£ of November, the Gannet s are feen no more. The 

 * s bird now fent was killed at Chandour near Mount/bay 

 " Sept. 30, 1762, after a long ftruggie with a water- 

 • 6 fpaniel, affifted by the boatmen ; for it was ftrong 

 €S and pugnacious. The perfon who took it obferved 

 44 that it had a tranfparent membrane under the eyelid, 

 tc with which it covered at pleafure the whole eye, 

 * c without obfeuring the fight or fnutting the eyelid ; 

 * 6 a gracious provifion for the fecurity of the eyes of 

 cs fo weighty a creature, whofe method of taking its 

 ts prey is by darting headlong on it 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~ 

 <s 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 decep- 

 tion cf the like kind : The fifhermen faften a pilchard 

 to a board, and leave it floating-, which inviting bait 

 decoys the unwary Gannet to its own deftruction. 



We are uncertain whether the Gannet breeds in any 

 other part of Europe befides our own iflands ; except (as 

 Mr. Ray fufpects, the Sula, defcribed in Clufius's Exotics, 

 which breeds in the Faroe iflesj be the fame bird. In 

 America there are two fpecies of birds of this genus, 



that 



