MOVEMENTS OF TllE GAKNET. 
273 
Wooilcut) is cliardcterlsed by the liead, neck, and all the upper 
surface being blackish grey, inclining to brown, each feather tipped 
with a triangular spot of white ; the breast and under-surface white, 
each feather being edged with greyish black ; the quills and tail 
greyish black, the shafts of the latter being white ; the bill blackish 
grey tinged with brown ; the irides pale brown ; the legs and feet deep 
grey. 
All the movements of the Gamiet on land are very- 
awkward ; it hobbles and waddles when it tries to walk, 
stares at you with its goggle Avhite eyes, oj)ens its ugly- 
black throat, and emits a torrent of cackling sounds. But 
how different is it when on wing or in the water ! how 
buoyantly it floats on either element ! how rapidly it plunges 
or di^'es in pursuit of its prey ! sometimes too rapidly, it 
would appear from the following paragraph : — 
The Gannets during their fishing rise high into the air, and sail 
aloft over the shoals of herrings and pilchards, much after the manner 
of Kites. When they observe the shoal crowded thick together, they 
close their wings to their sides, and precipitate themselves head 
foremost into the water, dropping almost like a stone. Their eye in 
this act is so correct that they never fail to rise with a fish in 
their mouths. To take these birds, the inhabitants of St. Kilda tie 
a herring to a board and set it afloat, so that by falling furiously 
upon it the bird may break it^s neck in the attempt. Some years ago, 
at Penzance, one of these birds saw some pilchards lying on a fir 
plank in a place for curing these fishes, and darted down with so 
much violence as to strike its bill quite through an inch and quarter 
plank, and to kill itself on the spot. 
North of the British Islands the Gannet is found in the 
Baltic as high as Bothnia ; on the west coast of Norway ; 
at the Faroe Islands, and Iceland ; while from the west of 
Labrador they are said to go as far as Carolina. South- 
ward from England the Gannet is included among the birds 
of Madeira and South Africa. Except about its breeding 
places, captures of the bird are rare in this country. We 
had the pleasure of seeing a fine specimen in the wdndow 
of Mr. Waters, bird-stuffer of Eochester, which was taken 
alive by some labourers on a farm at Higham, not far fj*om 
the river Medway, in April 1861. It is now, we believe, in 
the possession of J. Hulkes, Esq. 
The person who rents the Bass Rock from the proprietor, 
s 
