210 
COMMON GANNET. 
warmth to her only egg, plucks a few of the feathers from some distance 
beneath her breast. In sunny weather, she expands those of her upper parts, 
and passing her bill along their roots, destroys the vile insects that lurk 
there. Should a boisterous gale or a thick cold fog mar the beauty of the 
day, she gathers her apparel around her, and shrinks deeper into her bed • 
and should it rain, she places her body so as to prevent the inundation of 
her household. How happy, reader, must she be when now and the* her 
keen eyes distinguish in the crowd her affectionate mate, as he returns from 
the chase, with loaded bill, and has already marked her among the thousand 
beauties all equally anxious for the arrival of their lords ! Now by her 
side he alights as gently as is in his nature, presents her with a welcome 
repast, talks perhaps cheeringly to her, and again opening his broad wings 
departs in search of a shoal of herrings. At length, the oval chest opens, 
and out crawls the tender young ; but lo ! the little thing is black. What 
a strange contrast to the almost pure white of the parent ! Yet the mother 
loves it, with all the tenderness of other mothers. She has anxiously ex- 
pected its appearance, and at once she nurses it with care ; but so tender 
is it that she prefers waiting awhile before she feeds it. The time however 
soon comes, and with exceeding care she provides some well macerated 
morsels which she drops into its open mouth ; so well prepared are they 
that there is no instance on record of a Gannet, even of that tender age, 
having suffered from dyspepsia or indigestion. 
The male Gannet assists in incubating, though he sits less assiduously than 
the female ; and, on such occasions, the free bird supplies the. other with 
food. The sight of the young Gannet just after birth might not please the 
eye of many, for it is then quite naked, and of a deep bluish-black, much 
resembling a young Cormorant. Its abdomen is extremely large, its neck 
thin, its head large, its eyes as yet sightless, its wings but slightly developed. 
When we look at it three weeks afterwards, it has grown much, and almost 
entirely changed its colour, for, now, with the exception of certain parts of 
the neck, the short thighs, and the belly, it is covered with yellowish soft 
and thick down. In this state it looks perhaps as uncouth as at first, but it 
grows so rapidly that at the end of three weeks more, you find its downy 
coat patched with feathers in the most picturesque manner imaginable. 
Looking around you, you observe that all the young are not of the same 
growth ; for all the Gannets do not lay on the same day, and probably all the 
young are not equally supplied with food. At this period, the great eyrie 
looks as if all its parts had become common property ; the nests, which were 
once well fashioned, are trampled down ; the young birds stand everywhere 
or anywhere ; lazy-looking creatures they are, and with an appearance of 
nonchalance which I have never observed in any other species of bird, and 
