226 
MERSATRICES. 
carries food to its young in its gullet; never in its bill, and 
utters a harsh cry, resembling carra , carra , crak , crah At St 
Kilda vast numbers are killed as food, and for their feathers. 
At the Bass and Ailsa, they are also, in smaller numbers, 
similarly used. 
Solan Goose. 
Pelecanus bassanus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 217.— Pelecanus 
bassanus, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 891. — Sula alba; Temm. Man. 
d’Ornith. ii. 905.— -Sula Bassana ; Solan Gannet, MacGillivray, 
Brit. Birds, v. 
ORDER XIX. MERSATRICES. PLUNGERS. 
While some of the fishing sea-birds, as we have seen, 
obtain their food by diving from the surface of the water, 
and pursuing their prey beneath it, others, although 
w v eb-toed, and capable of swimming, never enter into the 
water, unless momentarily by plunging or dipping into 
it from on wing. Of this latter kind are the numerous 
species, some of which are found in all latitudes, and even 
in the midst of oceans, far from land, to which collective- 
ly I have given the name of Mersatrices. Terns, Gulls, 
Albatrosses, and Petrels, are familiar examples of this 
order. They are peculiarly erratic birds, which, unless 
when fixed to a place for a time by the cares of breeding, 
wander about in search of their food, which consists es- 
sentially of fishes, but also of Crustacea, mollusca, worms, 
insects, and sometimes carcasses of whales, land mamma- 
lia, and birds. Their structure is, of course, in confor- 
mity with this mode of life : they can usually walk with 
ease, wade in the shallows, swim lightly, and fly in an 
easy and buoyant manner. Their general characters seem 
to be the following : — 
Birds of large, moderate, or small size, having the 
body ovate, rather light in proportion to their bulk ; the 
