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ORD. III. GEN. XII. PELICAN. 



SPE. III. GANNET. 

 PI. 267. 



Pelecanus baffanus. Lin. Syfi. I. p. 217. 

 Le Fou de BalTan. Brif. Orn. VI. p. 503. 



This bird weighs upwards of feven pounds; and is fix feet in the fpread of 

 the wings. The bill is fix inches, a little hooked at the tip, toothed on the 

 fides like a faw, and of a dirty white colour : from the ba'fe of the beak round 

 the eye the fkin is bare of feathers, and of a pale blue : eyes, yellow : from 

 the corner of the beak is a line of black : the naked, dilatable fkin of the gul- 

 let beneath the chin is black: the neck is long: the body, flat: crown of the 

 head, and a little way down the hind part of the neck, pale bufF-colour : the 

 tail feathers are pointed, of a pale grey colour, the middle one longeft : the 

 quill feathers are black: the reft of the plumage is pure white: legs, and toes, 

 black, with a ftripe of pea-green on the forepart. 



The young birds are dull grey, fpeckled with white. 



The gannet, or folan goofe, as it is called by fome, breeds in prodigious 

 numbers in fome of our northern iflands, which are apparently its native coun- 

 try. It vifits them for this purpofe in March, and emigrates the latter end of 

 Auguft, following the herrings and pilchards, which appear to be its chief 

 food, and on which it darts down from a confiderable height with great force, 

 plunging after them into the fea. The young birds are much efteemed at 

 Edinburgh, and, with the eggs, conftitute a prime article of the food of the 

 people of St. Kilda. For the egg, of which it lays only one at a time, though 

 if this be taken it will lay a fecond, or even a third, but not more, fee PL LIX. 



¥ 



