64 the living animals OL THE WORLD 
photo by Schola.'iic Photo. Co.~\ {^P arson' s Green 
YOUNG GANNETS, FIRST YEAR 
"The plumage at this stage is 'very dark broiun^ each feather 
being tipped ivith luhite 
■eightpence to a shilling each. . . . The fat is 
boiled down into oil, and the feathers, after being 
well baked, are used for stuffing beds, about a 
liundred birds producing a stone of feathers.” 
Gannets present one or two structural pecu- 
liarities of sufficient interest to mention here. 
In most birds, it will be remembered, the nostrils 
open on each side of the beak ; but in the gannet 
no trace of true nostrils remains; and the same 
may almost be said of the cormorant and darter. 
Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] {^Parson's Green 
GANNET, FULL PLUMAGE 
The fully adult plumage is not attained till the bird is three 
years old 
fish, with the result that it is killed instantly 
by the shock of the contact. 
Gannets breed in colonies of thousands on 
the islands off the east and west coasts of Scotland. 
They lay but a single egg, in a nest composed 
of seaweed deposited in inaccessible crags of pre- 
cipitous cliffs. The young are at first naked; 
later they become clothed with long white down. 
“ Atone time,” says Mr. Howard Saunders, “young 
gannets were much esteemed as food, from 1,500 
to 2,000 being taken in a season during the month 
of August. They are hooked up, killed, and flung 
into the sea, where a boat is waiting to pick 
up the bodies. These are plucked, cleaned, and 
half roasted, after which they are sold at from 
Photo by Scholastic Photo, Co.] [^Parson's Green 
GANNET, SECOND YEAR 
The white plumage oj the neck is just beginning to appear 
In gannets, however, a slight indication of their 
sometime e.xistence remains, though the nostril 
itself no longer serves as an air-passage; and 
these birds are compelled to breathe through the 
mouth. Again, the tongue, like the nostrils, 
has also been reduced to a mere vestige. 
Stranger still is the fact that immediately under 
the skin there lies an extensive system of air- 
cells of large size, which can be inflated or 
emptied at will. Many of these cells dip down 
between the muscles of the body, so that the 
whole organism is pervaded with air-cells, all of 
which are in connection with the lungs. 
The Frigate- and Tropic-birds, which now 
remain to be described, are probably much less 
familiar to our readers than the foregoing species. 
