NATURE STUDY IN SCHOOLS. 241 



irritable, and these would even attempt to reach me with their bills when I 

 was walking along the ground ; others were good natured from the beginning 

 Such would even permit me to stroke and pet them as they sat in the trees 

 or on the nests. The one that I kept at my house and that I afterwards 

 carried to Kingston in company with a young man-of-war, was very tame 

 and soon learned to recognize me, evincing his enjoyment upon being petted 

 by a tremulous motion of the head. Singularly, a young snake bird, that I 

 got in Florida many years ago, and the adult white pelican, Johnnie, that I 

 kept in the north for four years, had a similar habit. 



The adult gannets give harsh cries when annoyed, and upon returning 

 from a fishing excursion, just before alighting, they give a series of nearly 

 continuous croaks. Both yovng and adults sleep by lying down upon what- 

 ever they may be perching, often with the head hanging directly downward, 

 the neck stretched at full length. So singular is this attitude, that the first 

 time I saw an adult in this position, I was so sure that it was dying, that 

 I went to it and caught hold of the head, before it was aware of my pres- 

 ence ; the result was a surprise for both of us, the gannet recovering with 

 such marvelous celerity, as to astonish me, and it, in turn, retreated scream- 

 ing, badly frightened at this uncerimonious awakening. 



One hears the cries of the Cory's gannet very frequently, when they are 

 annoved by the man-of-wars which rob them most persistently as they come 

 in from fishing. In returning from their fishing excursions, the gannets in- 

 variably come on to the land directly opposite the gannetry, often skirting 

 around the key to do this. The man-of-wars are aware of this habit, and as 

 they breed on the margin of the mangrove swamp, often placing their nests 

 on the same trees with the gannets, they are always in waiting, scores cruis- 

 ing up and down in mid air, along the bay on which the gannetry was sit- 

 uated. The gannets return in small flocks, varying from three or four to 

 twenty, and they are allowed to approach within a quarter of a mile of the 

 shore, when the enemy, sallies out to meet them. Sometimes only two man- 

 of-wars will go, but oftener eight or ten will band together and make a 

 rush at the gannets. The object of the aggressors is to separate a gannet 

 from the flock, and this is usually accomplished. The poor bird is at once 

 surrounded and harassed by loud cries and bufferings, two or three man-of 

 wars frequently seizing it by the tail or wings. When thus surrounded, the 

 persecuted gannet has only two alternatives, either to drop upon the water, 

 where the man-of-wars at once leave it, or to disgorge its fish. The falling fish 

 is oither taken in the air, before it gets to the water, by one of the pur- 

 suers, or is picked up before it has time to sink. It sometimes happens 



