320 
A DESCRIPTION OF 
THE GANNET, OR SOLAN GOOSE. 
(Sula bassana.) 
THESE birds are insatiably voracious, and yet they are 
somewhat particular in their choice of prey ; disdaining, 
unless in great want, to eat any food worse than herrings or 
mackerel. No fewer than one hundred thousand Gannets 
are supposed to frequent the rocks of St. Kilda ; and 
of these, including the young ones, at least twenty 
thousand are annually killed for food by the inha- 
bitants. The Gannet is somewhat more than three feet 
in length, and weighs about seven pounds. The bill is 
six inches long, straight almost to the point, where it is a 
little bent; its edges are irregularly jagged, for the better 
securing its prey ; and about an inch from the base of the 
upper mandible there is a sharp process pointing forward. 
