THE CAN NET. 323 



How taken Eggs Nests. 



darting headlong down from an height of an 

 hundred feet and more into the water to seize it. 

 These birds are sometimes taken at sea, by fas- 

 tening a pilchard to a board, which they leave 

 floating. The gannet instantly bounces down 

 from above u^pon the board, and is killed or 

 maimed by the shock of a body where it ex- 

 pected no resistance. 



The gannets breed but once a year, and lay 

 only one egg, but if that be taken away, they lay 

 another ; and if that be also taken away, then a 

 third; but never more for that season. Their 

 eggs are white, and rather less than those of the 

 common goose ; and their nest large, composed of 

 such substances as are found floating on the sur- 

 face of the, sea. The young birds, during the 

 first year, differ greatly in colour from the old 

 ones ; being of a dusky hue, speckled with nu- 

 merous triangular white spots; and at that time 

 resembling the colours of the speckled diver. 



They come yearly to the Bass Island, which is 

 an almost inaccessible rock, situated at the mouth 

 of the Forth in Scotland, seven miles from land, 

 and faces St. Andrews on the north, North Ber- 

 wick on the south, and the German ocean on the 

 east. It was anciently a kind of prison for those 

 who dissented from the then established church. 

 There they breed in great numbers; it belongs 

 to one proprietor, and care is taken never to 

 frighten away the birds when laying, or to shoot 

 them upon the wing. By that means they be- 

 2 s 2 



