GANNET. 
563 
and pugnacious. The person who took it observed 
that it had a transparent membrane under the eye- 
lid, with which it covered at pleasure the whole 
eye, without obscuring the sight, or shutting the 
eye-lid ; a gracious provision for the security of the 
eyes of so weighty a creature, whose method of 
taking its prey is by darting headlong on it from a 
height of a hundred and fifty feet or more into the 
water. About four years ago one of these birds 
flying over Penzance, a thing that rarely happens, 
and seeing some pilchards lying on a fir-plank, in a 
cellar used for curing fish, darted itself down with 
such violence, that it struck its bill quite through 
the board, about an inch and a quarter thick, and 
broke its neck.” 
Gannets are birds of passage, and make their 
first appearance in March, remaining among the 
northern islands till August or September. They 
feed chiefly on herrings ; and the consumption of 
those fish must be immense, when we consider the 
amazing flocks of these birds that depend upon 
them for a subsistence. It is said, that not less 
than one hundred thousand frequent the rocks of 
St. Kilda; nearly twenty-three thousand of which 
are annually consumed by the inhabitants. They 
build their nest in tremendous situations among 
the rocks ; it is large, and composed of grass, sea 
plants, shavings, &c. Here they lay one egg, 
which, if removed by the inhabitants, is succeeded 
by a second, and that if taken away will be re- 
placed by a third; but here they stop, and never lay 
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