THE GANNET. 
261 
on the 10th of March; during the winter months of the season 
1849-50, not one was observed. The oblique mode of descent 
when fishing, is little known, but it is unquestionably sometimes 
practised. A fisherman under whose notice gannets almost daily 
come in the season within the entrance of Belfast Bay, is of 
opinion (and doubtless correctly so) that they descend obliquely 
when their prey is in shallow water ; — as in fishing for sand-eels 
at the depth of a few feet, and for herring fry at or near the 
surface. In very deep water likewise, they occasionally strike 
obliquely. 
Gannets have been taken about Horn Head in the old-fashioned 
manner, by a fish fastened to a strong piece of board which is 
floated, and the bird coming down from a height in the air on 
the prey, has its neck dislocated. A fine adult bird was found 
upon the shore there with its neck thus broken a day or two be- 
fore our visit at the end of June 1832. It is remarked by 
Mr. J ohn Macgillivray that — “ The force with which the gannet 
plunges from on wing in pursuit of a fish is astonishingly great. 
The following story, illustrating this point, was related to me by 
more than one person, both in St. Kilda and Harris, and I 
believe to be true. Several years ago, an open boat was returning 
from St. Kilda to Harris, and a few herrings happened to be tying 
in the bottom, close to the edge of the ballast. A gannet passing 
overhead, stopping for a moment, suddenly darted down upon the 
fish, and passed through the bottom of the boat as far as the 
middle of the body, which, being retained in that position by one 
of the crew, effectually stopped the leak, until they had reached 
their destination Whether or not we give credence to this 
story, the following will not, I fear, pass current. OTlaherty, in 
his f West or H-Iar Connaught/ written in 1684, informs us that 
— “ Here the ganet soares high into the sky to espy his prey in 
the sea under him, at which he casts himself headlong into the 
sea, and swallows up whole herrings in a morsell. This bird flys 
through the ship’s sailes, piercing them with his beak” (p. 12).t 
* Description of the Island of St. Kilda, ‘ Edin. Phil. Journ.’ January 1842, p. 66 
f Published by the Irish Archseological Society, in 1846. 
