324 
PELECANID/K. 
I have often l)een astonished at the height from which the 
Gannets will dro]3 upon a fish, and the certainty with which 
they seize their prey. They very rarely miss their stroke, 
descending with such force that some seconds elapse before 
they reappear. After long and careful watching, I feel quite 
sure that the Gannet never throws itself upon its back before 
plunging, the movement which often looks like it being merely 
a sudden turn sideways. The flight is so rapid, and the pause 
before the plunge so abrupt, that the mark is occasionally over- 
shot; in which case a slight but sudden turn backwards or to one 
side is obviously needed. After submergence, the bird usually 
sits for a while upon the surface, rising on wing head to wind, 
not with any great rapidity at first, unless in rough weather, 
seeing that under ordinary circumstances it is compelled to 
strike the water with its feet, as the Cormorant does, in order 
to get under way. It sits buoyantly upon the water, and 
appears never to take a fresh prey without j^reviously rising 
on wing. The flight is performed by means of a series of 
strokes alternating with a steady sailing motion. 
Gannets are exceedingly troublesome to skin. A pure white 
plumage is in any case very liable to be soiled, but it often 
happens in these birds that large quantities of blood will collect 
in those remarkable air-cells which lie immediately beneath 
the skin. In the recent specimen the bill is of a very pale 
bluish grey, the lines upon it varying from a light indigo to 
almost black ; the eye is white, tinged with dull straw yellow ; 
eyelids and bare skin about head pale indigo. Feet and legs 
brownish black, the scutella bluish green. 
