PELECANIDyE. 
260 
a distance of two or three hundred yards, alighted, and remained 
there for one or two minutes preening themselves, and again 
returned to the fishing-ground. My informant supposes this rest to 
be necessary after the exhaustion caused by their descent. He has 
observed them when apparently about to poise themselves previous 
to making the plunge, fly away obliquely (though not alight), as if 
they saw they had no chance of securing their intended prey ; 
but, once the plunge was made, the object never escaped. They 
not only remained a long time under water, but emerged at a 
considerable distance from where they disappeared.* 
The Rev. G. M. Black, writing from Annalong, at the sea-base of 
the mountains of Mourne, in October, 1849, observes: — “ Gan- 
nets are frequent on the coast, and I spend often some half-hours 
in watching them fishing. Their power of sight must be amazing, 
as, no matter how rough the sea may be, it seems to make no 
difference to them. The fishermen say they know on what kind 
of fish they are f working 9 by the manner in which they c strike / 
if on herring or grey gurnard, slow -swimming fish, as I believe, 
they ascend perpendicularly, or nearly so, but if on mackerel, ob- 
liquely. One which happened to be caught asleep on the water 
(which is often the case) during the mackerel season, w r as brought 
on board the boat and tied by the leg to one of the f thafts/ To 
test its appetite some fish were thrown to it, when, without f draw- 
ing breath/ it swallowed four full-grown mackerel, and probably 
would have disposed of more, had not the fishermen thought it 
had had enough, at least for one meal. They must breed very 
early, as I have observed, in the -end of May, young birds quite 
strong on the wing, and fishing with the old ones. In winter I 
occasionally see the old birds, and them only.” 
Having requested my correspondent to note the dates of these 
birds being seen, he reported the last one in 1849, to have ap- 
peared on the 15th of November, and the first one in the spring 
* Audubon, having shot a gannet just as it emerged with a fish in its bill, and 
having found two others half-way down its throat, remarks, — “ This has induced me 
to believe that it sometimes follows its prey in the water, and seizes several fishes in 
succession ” (vol. iv. p. 227). This author gives an excellent account of the gannet. 
