I9I4. 
Reviews. 
157 
The author considers that owing to the mortahty among the young, 
not one bird in a hundred dies a natural death, and that " it may 
well be that this one Gannet reaches an advanced age, one, two, or three 
hundred years." What becomes of the dead birds generally is a mystery 
which Mr. Gurney thinks has never received a satisfactory solution (p. 429). 
He considers that of late years Gannets are increasing (p. 434). That 
tlic supply of hsh for human food is in no way diminished by Gannets 
is strenuously and rightly insisted upon. Omitting the Canadian islands, 
with an estimated Gannet population of 10,000, there are only fourteen 
breeding -stations, Lundy Island having been abandoned. Mr. Gurney 
estimates the number of Gannets in the world at 101,000, and regards 
the Little Skellig, Co. Kerry, as one of the largest nesting -sites, with at 
least 16,000 birds. Recent information sent to reviewer shows the birds 
at this localit}' are even more numerous and still increasing. 
The summer distribution of the Gannet is said (p. 39) to correspond 
with that of the Great Auk in former times, if we omit one small Icelandic 
breeding -station within the Arctic circle. 
The Gannet requires a longer period of incubation, and a longer period 
elapses before leaving the nest than with most birds ; the period of 
incubation is given as 42 days (6 weeks), and when hatched, the young 
one is fed for 13 weeks, and then, being very fat, remains in the nest 
without being fed by its parents for ten days (p. 370) when it takes its 
first flight, and then is said not to fly again for two or three more weeks, 
during which time there is no evidence to show that it takes food (p. 372). 
Apparently there is some contradiction in the author's statements (pp. 
309 and 374) since in one place it is said that at twelve or thirteen weeks 
old, the parents consider the young are quite fat enough, and desist from 
feeding them, and on page 374, the period from the hatching of the 
egg to the departure of the nestling is given as ten weeks. 
There is a remarkable statement on p. 97 that Gannets probably often 
remain on the wing in winter from forty to fifty hours at a stretch without 
alighting, and we are told (p. 382) that it can hardly be doubted that 
soaring birds sometimes sleep on the wing, the Gannet amongst the 
number. That they have been got in fishermen's nets at great depths 
has often been alleged, and depths of from seventy to ninety feet have 
been recorded. Mr. Gurney has timed the bird, and finds that it usually 
remains under water from five to ten seconds after the plunge. The 
height of the plunge is under 140 feet (p. 396). 
The fall in the price of Gannet oil is said to be- due to the fact that 
Scotch farmers now dip their sheep in chemicals instead of smearing 
them with grease. 
Peter Swave, a Dane, is quoted (p. 181) as stating in 1535 that the 
Gannet hatches its egg under its foot in a standing position, and Mr. 
Booth of Brighton, who kept this species in confinement (" Rough Notes," 
vol. iii.), observes that the old bird spreads the web of one foot carefully 
over the egg before sitting down (p. 353). John Ray, the celebrated 
naturalist (1661) is given (p. 206) as an authority for the statement that 
young Gannets were considered a choice dish and sold for is. M. each 
