COMMON GANNET. 
209 
merely a hobble. When the sun shines, they are fond of opening theii 
wings and beating them in the manner of Cormorants, shaking the head 
meanwhile rather violently, and emitting their usual uncouth guttural notes 
of cara, lcarew, karow. You may well imagine the effect of a concert per- 
formed by all the Gannets congregated for the purpose of breeding on such 
a rock as that in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where, amidst the uproar pro- 
duced by the repetition of these notes, you now and then distinguish the 
loud and continued wolfish howling-like sounds of those about to fly off. 
The newly-finished nest of this bird is fully two feet high, and quite as 
broad externally. It is composed of seaweeds and maritime grasses, the 
former being at times brought from considerable distances. Thus, the Gan- 
nets breeding on the rocks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, carry weeds from 
the Magdalene Islands, which are about thirty miles distant. The grasses 
are pulled or dug up from the surface of the breeding place itself, often in 
great clods consisting of roots and earth, and leaving holes not unlike the 
entrances to the burrows of the Puffin. The nests, like those of Cormorants, 
are enlarged or repaired annually. The single egg, of a rather elongated 
oval form, averages three inches and one-twelfth in length, by two inches 
in its greatest breadth, and is covered with an irregular roughish coating 
of white calcareous matter, which, on being scraped off, leaves exposed the 
pale greenish-blue tint of the under layer. 
The birds usually reach the rock when already paired, in files often of 
hundreds, and are soon seen billing in the manner of Cormorants, and copu- 
lating on the rocks, but never, like the birds just mentioned, on the water, 
as some have supposed. The period of their arrival at their breeding grounds 
appears to depend much on the latitude of the place ; for, on the Bass Bock, 
in the Firth of Forth, which I had the pleasure of visiting in the agreeable 
company of my learned friend William Macgillivray and his son, on 
the 19th of August, 1825, the Gannets are first seen in February, whereas in 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence they rarely reach the Great Bock until the middle 
of April or beginning of May ; and at Chateau Beau in the Straits of Belle 
Isle, not until a fortnight or three weeks later. Like the members of most 
large communities, the Gannets, though so truly gregarious at this season, 
shew a considerable degree of animosity towards their more immediate 
neighbours as soon as incubation commences. A lazy bird perhaps, finding 
it easier to rob the nest of its friend of weeds and sods, than to convey them 
from some distant place, seizes some, on which the. other resents the injury, 
and some well-directed thrusts of their strong bills are made, in open day 
and in full view of the assembled sitters, who rarely fail to look on with 
interest, and pass the news from one to another, until all are apprized of the 
quarrel. The time however passes on. The patient mother, to lend more 
Vol. VII.— 27 
