THE GANNET. 
393 
a furious charge, that the owner was obliged to come to his 
assistance with a stick, and even then could not keep them 
off without much difficulty. Their attack on dogs, cats, and 
poultry, if unprotected, was always fatal. They fought at once 
with their bills, wings, and claws, screaming frightfully all the 
time. They were on this account at last parted with, having 
killed a favourite pointer. The poor dog had incautiously 
strayed into the place where they were kept, when they 
immediately flew at him, and attacked him in front and rear : 
his loud howlings brought his master to his aid, hut too late ; 
they had got him down, and inflicted fatal wounds. 
The chief difference between Cormorants and the Frigate- 
birds, so called from their keeping a sharp look-out on other 
birds, and robbing them of their fish, consists in the latter 
having forked tails like our Swallows : their spread of wing 
is also proportionally much larger, and they are altogether of 
a lighter and more elegant appearance. We know hut little 
of them; indeed, our knowledge is limited to one species 
only, the Tachyjpetes aquila , of which we have already 
spoken (see page 78), when considering the buoyancy of 
birds and their power of floating in the air. We shall there- 
fore proceed to the next genus, Gannets, or Boobies, as some 
of them are called by sailors, owing to the stupidity with 
which they suffer themselves to he attacked and robbed by 
men and birds. 
The Common Gannet (Solan Goose) is the species to which 
we shall confine our remarks : well known as it must be to 
those who have sailed on either side of the Scottish coast, as 
well as several other shores of our island, it will be more 
familiar to many under the name of the Solan Goose. Like 
most of the other birds of this tribe, it is profusely* supplied 
with air-cells ; and we refer our readers to the account 
already given (page 53), of these peculiarities in its formation, 
merely adding, that from the facility of procuring specimens, 
a close examination of this species is recommended to those 
naturalists who wish to acquire more information on the 
internal economy of air-inflated birds. 
In our account of the dismal tempests that so often prove 
