192 



GANNET. 



rise at certain times from the water with difficulty, at which time they 

 are easily run down by a boat. When surprised, they defend them- 

 selves obstinately and powerfully, striking- with their bills, and 

 pinching very severely. It should seem, from the accounts we have 

 been able to collect from this unintelligible sort of beings, the fisher- 

 men, that the Gannets cannot rise from the water, but against the wind, 

 and when that advantage is taken of them, they are easily captured. 

 This defect, however, is certainly not constant, but only occasional, as 

 we perceive in the cormorant, divers, grebes, and many piscivorous 

 birds at particular times, when they are both gorged with prey, and 

 their feathers have become wet with the exertion of procuring it. 

 These, however, most frequently baffle their pursuers by immersion 

 and long continuance under water. The Gannet, on the contrary, has 

 no such resource ; when his stomach is replete with fish, and his 

 plumage saturated with water, occasioned by the concussion on its 

 surface, by his rapid descent upon his prey, his only alternative is his 

 oars upon the bosom of the deep, for he cannot dive, by reason of his 

 body being so much specifically lighter than that element. 



A Gannet brought to us alive on the twentieth of March, in the 

 year 1807, took no kind of food for seven days ; it was then crammed 

 with both fish and flesh, and soon after began to devour all white fish 

 greedily, but did not choose to pick up even a plaise when the back 

 was uppermost. 



It was remarked, that when the bill was held so as to close the 

 mandibles for a considerable time, respiration became laborious, there 

 being no nostrils. When the bird was placed on the water of a pond, 

 nothing could induce him to attempt to dive ; and from the manner of 

 his putting the bill, and sometimes the whole head under water, as if 

 searching for fish, it appears that their prey is frequently taken in 

 that manner. It is probable more fish are caught in their congregated 

 migrations, when the shoals are near the surface, than by their descent 

 upon wing ; for the herrings, pilchards, mackarel, and other gregarious 

 fishes, cannot at that time avoid their enemy, who is floating in the 

 midst of profusion. In the act of respiration, there appears to be 

 always some air propelled between the skin and the body of this bird, 

 as a visible expansion and contraction is observed about the breast ; 

 and this singular conformation makes the bird so buoyant, that it 

 floats high on the water, and not sunk beneath its surface, as observed 

 in the cormorant and shag. The legs are not placed so far behind as 

 in such of the feathered tribe as procure their subsistence by immer- 

 sion : the Gannet, consequently, has the centre of gravity placed mor 



