130 
British Birds. 
eggs are like those of the Cormorant, but are smaller, seldom exceeding two-and-a- 
half inches in length ; they have a chalky outer covering, which conceals the 
green colour of the egg. 
The Gannets have the same formation of the foot as in 
osteological characters. 
The Common Gannet (Dysporus bassanus). The adult bird is white, with a 
tinge of ochreous buff on the head and back, and the primary-quills are black. 
Before the adult stage of plumage is reached, however, the bird goes through several 
stages, and it is some years before the perfect plumage is gained. The nestlings are 
at first naked and black, and they afterwards become covered with white down which 
lasts till the bird is of a good size. The next plumage is brown, speckled with white, 
the under surface being white, mottled with grey. After the next moult the birds 
become more uniformly coloured below, and the head and neck are mottled with 
white, which increases with successive moults until the full white plumage is 
attained. 
The Gannet breeds in colonies, of which a few are found on our coasts, the most 
celebrated being the Bass Rock and Ailsa Craig. Similar colonies exist in the 
Faroes, Iceland, and a few places on the Atlantic Coast of North America. In 
winter the birds are found considerably to the southward of their nesting haunts. 
The Gannet is a bird of most powerful flight, and fishes, as it nests, in company, 
descending on its prey from a great height above the water, though it does not settle 
on the water so often as the Shags or Cormorants. The nest is made of sea-weed 
and only one egg is laid, of a chalky white, which has to be removed before the 
blue colour of the egg can be discerned. The length is about two-and-three-quarters 
to three-and-a-quarter inches. 
THE GANNETS. 
Sub-order SULsE. 
the Cormorants, but the shape of the bill is different, and 
they are further distinguished by several anatomical and 
