230 
ALLEN’S naturalist’s LIBRARY. 
the light-keepers, who think that the birds are increasing in 
numbers. 
Kange outside the British Islands. — As in our own islands, the 
breeding-places of the Gannet are confined to a few localities, 
which are in the Western Faroes, in Iceland, and again on 
the Magdalene Islands and other rocky islets in the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, on the Atlantic side of North America. The 
species wanders south in winter, and reaches as far as the 
Mexican coast in America, and to North Africa and Madeira, 
but its southern limits in winter are not well known, and it 
would appear to be represented by distinct species of the 
genus in all the southern continents. 
Hahits — The Gannet is entirely maritime, and is only found 
inland when driven by stress of weather and exhausted. It 
lives entirely on fish and destroys a large number of herrings 
and other surface-feeding species, falling on them from a height 
in the air, as it does not dive like a Cormorant. Except in the 
winter, when single specimens are met with on our coasts, the 
Gannet is a gregarious bird, nesting and fishing in company, 
and some idea of the number of the latter may be gained from 
the figures given by Mr. Seebohm, who reckons that on Sulis- 
geir there are one hundred and fifty thousand pairs, on the 
Stack of Suliskerry twenty-five thousand pairs, and the same 
number on Boreray. On the Bass Rock and Ailsa Craig he 
puts the numbers at about six thousand pairs on each. When 
feeding in company, as they do, many birds are caught in the 
fishing-nets. 
The flight of the Gannet is decidedly grand, as the bird 
swoops along at a prodigious rate, one flap of the wings seem- 
ing sufficient to carry it for a great distance. At first appear- 
ing as a speck on the horizon, I have known one of these birds 
to pass over my boat in a space of time almost incredible ; but 
the long pointed wings have a way of swinging it through the 
air, so that in a few seconds the great bird looms up close, 
and in a few more is out of vision behind the next headland. 
Sometimes the Gannets soar to a great height and wheel 
round and round, seldom settling on the water except to digest 
their food or to sleep. They are capable of traversing long 
