232 
NATURAL HISTORY 
bringing them back to their habitations, places every bird 
in its own nest. 
Gannet. (pi. 39.) This bird, which is about the size 
of a tame goose, is somewhat more than three feet in 
length, and weighs about seven pounds. The bill is six 
inches long, straight almost to the point, where it is a lit- 
tle bent; its edges are irregularly jagged, for the better 
securing of its prey; and about an inch from the base of 
the upper mandible, is a sharp process, pointing forward. 
The general colour of the plumage is dirty white, with a 
cinereous tinge. Surrounding each eye, there is a naked 
skin of fine blue: from the corner of the mouth a narrow 
slip of naked black skin extends to the hind part of the 
Bead; and beneath the coin is a pouch, like that of the 
pelican, capable of containing five or six herrings. The 
neck is long; the body flat, and very full of feathers. On 
the crown of the head, and the back part of the neck, is 
a small buff-coloured space. The quill feathers, and 
some other paits of the wings are black; as are also the 
legs, except a fine pea-green stripe in their front. The 
tail is wedge-shaped, and consi . twelve sharp- 
pointed feathers. 
These birds, which subsist entirely upon fish, chiefly 
resort to those uninhabited islands where their food is 
found in plenty, and men seldom come to disturb them. 
The islands to the north of Scotland, the Skelig islands 
of the coasts of Kerry, in Ireland, and those that lie in 
the north sea of Norway, abound with them. But it is 
on the Boss island, in the Firth of Edinburgh, where 
they are seen in the greatest abundance. 
The gannet is a bird of passage. In winter it seeks 
the more southern coasts of Cornwall, hovering over the 
shoals of herrings and pilchards which then come down 
from the northern sea: its first appearance in the northern 
islands is at the beginning of spring: and it continues to 
breed till the end of summer. But, in general, its mo- 
tions are determined by the migrations of the immense 
shoal of herrings that come pouring down at that season 
through the British channel, and supply all Europe, as 
well as this bird, with their spoil. The gannet assidu* 
