COMMON GANNET. 
205 
their cod-fish hooks, ascend armed with heavy short clubs, in parties of 
eight, ten, or more, and at once begin their work of destruction. At sight 
of these unwelcome intruders, the affrighted birds rise on wing with a noise 
like thunder, and fly off in such a hurried and confused manner as to impede 
each other’s progress, by which thousands are forced downwards, and accu- 
mulate into a bank many feet high ; the men beating and killing them with 
their*clubs until fatigued, or satisfied with the number they have slain.’ 1 
Here Mr. Godwin assured us that he had visited the Gannet Rock ten sea- 
sons in succession, for the purpose just mentioned, and added, that on one 
of these occasions, “ six men had destroyed five hundred and forty Gannets 
‘in about an hour, after which the party rested awhile, and until most of the 
living birds had left their immediate neighbourhood, for all around them, 
beyond the distance of about a hundred yards, thousands of Gannets were 
yet sitting on their nests, and the air was filled with multitudes of others. 
The dead birds are now roughly skinned, and the flesh of the breast cut up 
in pieces of different sizes, which will keep good for bait about a fortnight or 
three weeks. So great is the destruction of these birds for the purpose men- 
tioned, that the quantity of their flesh so procured supplies with bait upwards 
of forty boats, which lie fishing close to the Island of Brion each season. By 
the 20th of May the rock is covered with birds on their nests and eggs, and 
about a month afterwards the young are hatched. The earth is scratched by 
the birds for a few inches deep, and the edges surrounded by sea-weeds and 
other rubbish, to the height of eight or ten inches, tolerably well matted 
together. Each female Gannet lays a single egg, which is pure white, but 
not larger than a good-sized hen’s egg. When the young are hatched, they 
are bluish-black, and for a fortnight or more their skin is not unlike that of 
the common dog-fish. They gradually become downy and white, and when 
five or six weeks old look like great lumps of carded wool.” 
I was well pleased with this plain statement of our pilot, as I had with 
my glass observed the regularity of the lines of nests, and seen many of the 
birds digging the earth with. their strong bills, while hundreds of them were 
carrying quantities of that long sea-weed called eel-grass, which they seem 
to bring from towards the Magdalene Islands. While the Ripley lay to 
near the rock, thousands of the Gannets constantly flew over our heads ; and 
although I shot at and brought several to the water, neither the reports nor 
the sight of their dead companions seemed to make any impression on them. 
On weighing several of the Gannets brought on board, I found them to 
average rather more than seven pounds ; but Mr. Godwin assured me that 
when the young birds are almost ready to fly, they weigh eight and some- 
times nine pounds. This I afterwards ascertained to be true, and I account 
for the difference exhibited at this period by the young birds, by the great 
