skins are out of season about Febuary, losing their bright colour; and in breeding time their breasts are entirely

Dare.

BOOK VII.-CHAP. I.

OF WATER-FOWL IN GENERAL.

In settling the distinctions among the other classes of birds there was some difficulty; one tribe encroached so nearly upon the nature and habitudes of another, that it was not easy to draw the line which kept them asunder: but in water-fowl Nature has marked them for us by a variety of indelible characters; so that it would be almost as unlikely to mistake a landfowl for one adapted for living and swimming among the waters as a fish for a bird.

The first great distinction in this class appears in the toes, which are webbed together for swimming. Those who have remarked the feet or toes of a duck will easily conceive how admirably they are formed for making way in the water. When men swim they do not open the fingers so as to let the fluid pass through them, but, closing them together, present one broad surface to beat back the water, and thus push their bodies along. What man performs by art Nature has supplied to water-fowl, and, by broad skins, has webbed their toes together, so that they expand two broad oars to the water, and thus, moving them alternately, with the greatest ease paddle along. We must observe, also, that the toes are so contrived, that as they strike backward their broadest hollow surface beats the water; but as they gather them in again for a second blow, their front surface contracts, and does not impede the bird's progressive motion.

As their toes are webbed in the most convenient manner, so are the legs also made most fitly for swift progression in the water. The legs of all are short, except the three birds described in the former chapter-namely, the flamingo, the avosetta, and the corrira; all which for that reason I have thought proper to rank among the crane kind, as they make little use of their toes in swimming. Except these, all web-footed birds have very short legs; and these strike while they swim with very great facility. Were the leg long, it would act like a lever whose prop is placed to a disadvantage; its motions would be slow, and the labour of moving it considerable. For this reason, the very few birds whose webbed feet are long never make use of them in swimming: the web at the bottom seems only of service as a broad base, to prevent them from sinking while they walk in the mud; but it otherwise rather retards than advances their motion.

The shortness of the legs of the web-footed kinds renders them as uufit for walking on land as it qualifies them for swimming in their natural element. Their stay, therefore, upon land is but short and transitory; and they seldom venture to breed far from the sides of those waters where they usually remain In their breeding seasons their young are brought up by the water-side; and they are covered with a warm down to fit them for the coldness of their situation. The old ones also have a closer, warmer plumage than birds of any other class. It is of their feathers our beds are composed as they neither mat nor imbibe humidity, but are furnished with an animal oil that glazes their surface and keeps each separate. In some, however, this animal oil is in too great abundance, and is as offensive from its smell as it is serviceable for the purposes of household enonomy. The feathers. therefore, of all the penguin kind are totally useless for domestic purposes, as neither boiling nor bleaching can divest them of their oily rancidity. Indeed, the rancidity of all new feathers, of whatever water fowl they be, is so disgusting, that our uphol

sterers give near double the price for old feathers that they afford for new: to be free from smell they must all be laid upon for some time; and their usual method is to mix the new and old together.

This quantity of oil, with which most water-fowl are supplied, contributes also to their warmth in the moist element in which they reside. Their skin is generally lined with fat; so that with the warmth of the feathers externally, and this natural lining more internally, they are better defended against the changes or the inclemencies of the weather than any other class whatever. As among land-birds there are some found fitted entirely for depredation, and others for a harmless method of subsisting upon vegetables, so also among these birds there are tribes of plunderers that prey, not only upon fish, but sometimes upon water-fowl themselves There are likewise more inoffensive tribes that live upon vegetables only. Some water-fowls subsist by making sudden stoops from above, to seize whatever fish come near the surface; others again, not furnished with wings long enough to fit them for flight, take their prey by diving after it to the bottom.

From hence water-fowl naturally fall into three dis tinctions-those of the gull kind, that, with long legs and round bills, fly along the surface to seize their prey; those of the penguin kind, that, with round bills, legs hid in the abdomen, and short wings, dive after their prey and, thirdly, those of the goose kind, with flat broad bills, that lead harmless lives, and chiefly subsist upon insects and vegetables.

These are not speculative distinctions, made up for the arrangement of a system, but they are strongly and evidently marked by Nature. The gull kind are active and rapacious, constantly, except when they breed, keeping upon the wing; fitted for a life of rapine, with sharp, straight bills for piercing, or hooked at the end for holding their fishy prey. In this class we may rank the albatross, the cormorant, the gannet or soland goose, the shag, the frigate-bird, the great brown gull, and all the lesser tribes of gulls and sea-swallows.

The penguin kind, with appetites as voracious, bills as sharp, and equally eager for prey, are yet unqualified to obtain it by flight. Their wings are short and their bodies large and heavy, so that they can neither run nor fly. But they are formed for diving in a very peculiar manner. Their feet are placed so far backward, and their legs so hid in the abdomen, that the slightest stroke sends them head foremost to the bottom of the water. To this class we may refer the penguin, the auk, the skout, the sea-turtle, the bottle-nose, and the loon.

The goose kind are easily distinguishable by their flat broad bills covered with a skin, and their manner of feeding, which is mostly upon vegetables. In this class we may place the swan, the goose, the duck, the teal, the widgeon, and all their numerous varieties.

In describing the birds of these three classes I will put the most remarkable of each class at the beginning of their respective tribes, and give their separate history: then, after having described the chiefs of the tribe, the more ordinary sorts will naturally fall in a body, and come under a general description behind their leaders. But before I offer to pursue this methodical arrangement, I must give the history of a bird that, from its singular conformation, seems allied to no species, and should therefore be separately described-I mean the pelican.

CHAP. II.

OF THE PELICAN.

The pelican of Africa is much larger in the body than a swan, and somewhat of the same shape and colour. Its four toes are all webbed together; and its neck in

some measure resembles that of a swan; but that singularity in which it differs from all other birds is in the bill and the pouch underneath, which are wonderful, and demand a distinct description. This enormous bill is fifteen inches from the point to the opening of the mouth, which is a good way back behind the eyes. At the base the bill is somewhat greenish, but varies towards the end, being of a redish-blue. It is very thick in the beginning, but tapers off to the end, where it hooks downwards. The under-chap is still more extraordinary; for to the lower edges hangs a bag reaching the whole length of the bill to the neck, which is said to be capable of containing fifteen quarts of water. This bag the bird has a power of wrinkling up into the hollow of the under-chap; but by opening the bill, and putting one's hand down into the bag, it may be distended at pleasure. The skin of which it is formed will then be seen of a blueish ash-colour, with many fibres and veins running over its surface. It is not covered with feathers, but with a short downy substance as smooth and as soft as satin, and is attached all along the under edges of the chap, to be fixed backward to the neck of the bird by proper ligaments, and reaches near half way down. When this bag is empty it is not seen; but when the bird has fished with success, it is then incredible to what an extent it is often seen dilated. For the first thing the pelican does in fishing is to fill up the bag; and then it returns to digest its burthen at leisure. When the bill is opened to its widest extent a person may run his head into the bird's mouth, and conceal it in this monstrous pouch, thus adapted for very singular purposes. Yet this is nothing to what Ruysch assures us, who avers that a man has been seen to hide his whole leg, boot and all, in the moustrous jaws of one of these animals. At first appearance this would seem impossible, as the sides of the under-chap, from which the bag depends, are not above an inch asunder when the bird's bill is first opened; but then they are capable of great separation; and it must necessarily be so, & it preys upon the largest fishes, and hides them by dozens in its pouch. Tertre affirms that it will hide as many fish as will serve sixty hungry men for a meal.

Such is the formation of this extraordinary bird, which is a native of Africa and America. The pelican was once also known in Europe, particularly in Russia; but it seems to have deserted our coasts. This is the bird of which so many fabulous accounts have been propagated; such as its feeding its young with its own blood, and its carrying a provision of water for them in its great reservoir in the desert. But the absurdity of the first account answers itself; and as for the latter, the pelican uses its bag for very different purposes than that of filling it with water.

Its amazing pouch may be considered as analogous to the crop in other birds, with this difference, that as theirs lies at the bottom of the gullet, so this is placed at the top. Thus, as pigeons and other birds macerate their food for their young in their crops and then supply them, so the pelican supplies its young by a more ready contrivance, and macerates their food in its bill, or stores it for its own particular sustenance.

The ancients were particularly fond of giving this bird admirable qualities and parental affections; struck, perhaps, with its extraordinary figure, they were willing to supply it with as extraordinary appetites; and having found it with a large reservoir, they were pleased with turning it to the most tender and parental uses. But the truth is, the pelican is a very heavy, sluggish, voracious bird, and very ill fitted to take those flights or to make those cautious provisions for a distant time which we have been told they do. Labat, who seems to have studied their manners with great exactness, has given us a minute history of this bird as found in America, and from him I borrow mine.

The pelican, says Labat, has strong wings, furnished

with thick plumage of an ash-colour, as are the rest of the feathers over the whole body. Its eyes are very small when compared to the size of its head; there is a sadness in its countenance, and its whole air is melancholy. It is as dull and reluctant in its motions as the flamingo is sprightly and active. It is slow of flight, and when it rises to fly performs it with difficulty and labour. Nothing, as it would seem, but the spur of necessity could make these birds change their situation, or induce them to ascend in the air; but they must either starve or fly.

They are torpid and inactive to the last degree, so that nothing can exceed their indolence but their gluttony; it is only from the stimulations of hunger that they are excited to labour; for otherwise they would continue always in fixed repose, When they have raised themselves about thirty or forty feet above the surface of the sea they turn their head with one eye downwards, and continue to fly in that posture. As soon as they perceive a fish sufficiently near the surface they dart down upon it with the swiftness of an arrow, seize it with unerring certainty, and store it up in their pouch. They then rise again, though not without great labour and continue hovering and fishing with their head on one side as before.

This work they continue with great effort and industry till their bag is full, and then they fly to land to devour and digest at leisure the fruits of their own industry. This, however, it would appear they are not long in performing; for towards night they have another hungry call, and they again reluctantly go to labour. At night, when their fishing is over, and the toil of the day crowned with success, these lazy birds retire a little way from the shore; and, though with the webbed feet and clumsy figure of a goose, they will be contented to perch no where but upon trees among the light and airy tenants of the forest. There they take their repose for the night, ånd often spend a great part of the day, except such times as they are fishing, sitting in dismal solemnity, and as it would seem half asleep. Their attitude is with the head resting upon their great bag, and that resting upon their breast. There they remain, without motion or once changing their situation, till the calls of hunger break their repose, and till they find it indispensibly necessary to fill their magazine for a fresh meal. Thus their life is spent between sleeping and eating; and our author adds, that they are as foul as they are voracious, as they are every moment voiding excrements in heaps as large as one's fist.

The same indolent habits seem to attend them even in preparing for incubation, and defending their young when excluded. The female makes no preparation for her nest, nor seems to choose any place in preference to lay in, but drops her eggs on the bare ground to the number of five or six, and there continues to hatch them. Attached to the place, without any desire of defending her eggs or her young, she tamely sits and suffers them to be taken from under her. Now and then she just ventures to peck, and cries out when a person offers to beat her off.

She feeds her young with fish macerated for some time in her bag, and when they cry she flies off for a new supply. Labat tells us that he took two of these when very young, and tied them by the leg to a post stuck into the ground, where he had the pleasure of seeing the old one for several days come to feed them, remaining with them the greatest part of the day, and spending the night on the branch of a tree that hung over them. By these means they were all three become so familiar, that they suffered themselves to be handled; and the young ones very kindly accepted whatever fish he offered them. These they always put first into their bag, and then swallowed at their leisure.

It seems, however, that they are but disagreeable and useless domestics; their gluttony can scarcely be satis

fied; their flesh smells very rancid, and tastes a thousand times worse than it smells. The native Americans kill vast numbers not to eat, for they are not fit even for the banquet of a savage, but to convert their large bags into purses and tobacco-pouches. They bestow no small pains in dressing the skin with salt and ashes, rubbing it well with oil, and then forming it to their purpose. It thus becomes so soft and pliant, that the Spanish women sometimes adorn it with gold and embroidery to make work-bags of.

Yet, with all the seeming habitude of this bird, it is not entirely incapable of instruction in a domestic state. Raymond assures us that he has seen one so tame and well educated among the native Americans, that it would go off in the morning at the word of command, and return before night to its master, with its great paunch distended with plunder, a part of which the savages would make it disgorge, and a part they would permit it to reserve for itself.

"The pelican," as Faber relates, "is not destitute of other qualifications. One of those which was brought alive to the Duke of Bavaria's court, where it lived forty years, seemed to be possessed of very uncommon sensations. It was much delighted in the company and conversation of men, and in music, both vocal and instrumental; for it would willingly stand," says he, " by those that sung or sounded the trumpet, and, stretching out its head, and turning its ear to the music, listened very attentively to its harmony, though its own voice was little pleasanter than the braying of an ass." Gesner tells us that the Emperor Maximilian had a tame pelican which lived for above eighty years, and that always attended his army on their march. It was one. of the largest of the kind, and had a daily allowance by the emperor's orders. As another proof of the great age to which the pelican lives, Aldrovandus makes mention of one of these birds that was kept several years at Mechlin, and was verily believed to be fifty years old. We often see these birds at our shows about town.

CHAP. III.

OF THE ALBATROSS, THE FIRST OF THE GULL KIND.

Though this is one of the largest and most formidable birds of Africa and America, yet we have but few accounts to enlighten us in its history. The figure of the bird is thus described by Edwards :-" The body is rather larger than that of the pelican; and its wings, when extended, ten feet from tip to tip. The bill, which is six inches long, is yellowish, and terminates in a crooked point. The top of the head is of a bright brown; the back is of a dirty deep spotted brown; and the belly and under the wings is white; the toes, which are webbed, are of a flesh colour."

Such are the principal traits in this bird's figure; but these lead us a very short way in its history; and our naturalists have thought fit to say nothing more. How ever, I am apt to believe this bird to be the same with that described by Wicquefort under the title of the alcatraz; its size, its colour, and its prey incline me to think so. He describes it as a great gull, as large in the body as a goose, of a brown colour, with a long bill, and living upon fish, of which they kill great numbers.

This bird is an inhabitant of the tropical climates, and also beyond them as far as the Straights of Magellan in the South Seas. It is one of the most fierce and formidable of the aquatic tribe, not only living upon fish, but also such small water-fowl as it can take by surprise. It preys, as all the gull kind do, upon the wing; and chiefly pursues the flying-fish that are forced from the sea by the dolphins. The ocean in that part of the world presents a very different appearance from the

seas with which we are surrounded. In our seas we see nothing but a dreary expanse, ruffled by winds, and seemingly forsaken by every class of Animated Nature. But the tropical seas, and the distant southern latitudes beyond them, are all alive with birds and fishes, pursuing and pursued. Every various species of the gull kind are there seen hovering on the wing, at a thousand miles distance from the shore. The flying fish are every moment rising to escape from their pursuers of the deep only to encounter equal dangers in the air. Just as they rise the dolphin is seen to dart after them, but generally in vain; the gull has more frequent success, and often takes them at their rise; while the albatross pursues the gull, and obliges it to relinquish its prey: so that the whole horizon presents but one living picture of rapacity and evasion.

So much is certain; but how far we are to credit Wicquefort in what he adds concerning this bird the reader is left to determine. "As these birds, except when they breed, live entirely remote from land, so they are often seen, as it would seem, sleeping in the air. At night, when they are pressed by slumber, they rise into the clouds as high as they can; there, putting their head under one wing, they beat the air with the other, and seem to take their ease. After a time, however, the weight of their bodies, only thus half supported, brings them down; and they are seen descending, with a pretty rapid motion, to the surface of the sea. Upon this they again put forth their efforts to rise; and thus alternately ascend and descend at their ease. But it sometimes happens," says my author, "that in these slumbering flights they are off their guard, and fall upon deck, where they are taken."

What truth there may be in this account I will not take upon me to determine; but certain it is that few birds float upon the air with more ease than the albatross, or support themselves a longer time in that element. They seem never to feel the accesses of fatigue, but, night and day upon the wing, are always prowling, yet always emaciated and hungry.

But though this bird be one of the most formidable tyrants of the deep, there are some associates which even tyrants themselves form, to which they are induced either by caprice or necessity. The albatross seems to have a peculiar affection for the penguin, and a pleasure in its society. They are always seen to choose the same places of breeding-some distant, uninhabited island, where the ground slants to the sea, as the penguin is not formed either for flying or climbing. In such places their nests are seen together, as if they stood in need of mutual assistance and protection. Captain Hunt, who for some time commanded at our settlement upon Falkland Islands, assures me that he was often amazed at the union preserved between these birds, and the regularity with which they built together. In that bleak and desolate spot, where the birds had long continued undisturbed possessors, and in no way dreaded the encroachments of men, they seemed to make their abode as comfortable as they expected it to be lasting. They were seen to build with an amazing degree of uniformity-their nests covering fields by thousands, and resembling a regular plantation. In the middle, on high, the albatross raised its nest, on heath-sticks and long grass, about two feet above the surface; round this the penguins made their lower settlements, rather in holes in the ground, and most usually eight penguins to one albatross. Nothing is a stronger proof of Mr. Buffon's fine observation, that the presence of man not only destroys the society of meaner animals, but their instincts also. These nests are now, I am told, totally destroyed-the society is broken up-and the albatross and penguin have gone to breed upon more desert chores in greater security.

CHAP. IV.

THE CORMORANT.

The cormorant is about the size of a large Muscovy duck, and may be distinguished from all other birds of this kind by its four toes being united by membranes together, and by the middle toe being toothed or notched like a saw, to assist it in holding its fishy prey. The head and neck of this bird are of a sooty blackness, and the body thick and heavy, more inclining in figure to that of the goose than the gull. The bill is straight till near the end, where the upper chap bends into a hook. But notwithstanding the seeming heaviness of its make, there are few birds more powerfully predaceous. As soon as the winter approaches they are seen dispersed along the sea-shore, and ascending up the mouths of fresh-water rivers, carrying destruction to all the finny tribe. They are most remarkably voracious, and have a most sudden digestion. Their appetite is for ever craving and never satisfied. This guawing sensation may probably be increased by the great quantity of small worms that fill their intestines, and which their unceasing gluttony contributes to engender.

Thus formed with grossest appetites, this unclean bird has the most rank and disagreeable smell, and is more fœtid then even carrion when in its most healthful state. Its form, says an ingenious modern, is disagreeable-its voice is hoarse and croaking-and all its qualities obscene. No wonder, then, that Milton should make Satan personate this bird, when he sent him upon the basest purposes to survey with pain the beauties of Paradise, and to sit devising death on the Tree of Life. It has been remarked, however, of our poet, that the making a water-fowl perch on a tree implied no great acquaintance with the history of Nature. In vindication of Milton, Aristotle expressly says that the cormorant is the only water-fowl that sits on trees. We have already seen the pelican of this number; and the cormorant's toes seem as fit for perching upon trees as for swimming; so that our epic bard seems to have been as deeply versed in natural history as in criticism.

Indeed this bird seems to be of a multiform nature: and wherever fish are to be found it watches their migrations. It is seen as well by land as by sea; it fishes in fresh-water lakes as well as in the depths of the ocean; it builds in the cliffs of rocks as well as on trees; and preys not only in the day time but by night.

Its indefatigable nature and its great power in catching fish were probably the motives that induced some nations to breed this bird up tame, for the purposes of fishing; and Willoughby assures us that it was once used in England for that purpose. The description of their manner of fishing is thus described by Faber. "When they carry them out of the rooms where they are kept to the fish-ponds they hoodwink them, that they might not be frightened by the way. When they are come to the rivers they take off their hoods; and, having tied a leather thong round the lower part of their necks that they may not swallow down the fish they catch, they throw them into the river. They presently dive under water, and there for a long time with wonderful swiftness pursue the fish and, when they have caught them, rise to the top of the water, and, pressing the fish lightly with their bills, swallow them, till each bird hath after this manner devoured five or six fishes. Then their keepers call them to the fist, to which they readily fly, and, one after another, vomit up all their fish, a little bruised with the first nip given in catching them When they have done fishing, setting the birds on some high place, they loose the string from their necks, leaving the passage to the stomach free and open: and for their reward they throw them part of their prey, to each one or two fishes, which they will catch most dex terously as they are falling in the air."

At present the cormorant is trained up in every part of China for the same purpose, where there are many lakes and canals. "To this end," says Le Compte, “they are educated as men rear up spaniels or hawks, and one man can easily manage a hundred. The fisher carries them out into the lake, perched on the gunnel of his boat, where they continue tranquil, and expecting his orders with patience. When arrived at the proper place, at the first signal 'given each flies a different way to fulfil the task assigned it. It is very pleasant on this occasion to behold with what sagacity they portion out the lake or the canal where they are upon duty. They hunt about, they plunge, they rise a hundred times to the surface, until at last they have found their prey. They then seize it with their beak by the middle, and carry it without fail to their master. When the fish is too large they then give each other mutual assistance; one seizes it by the head, the other by the tail, and in this manner carry it to the boat together. There the boatman stretches out one of his long oars, on which they perch, and being delivered of their burthen, they fly off to pursue their sport. When they are wearied he lets them rest for a while; but they are never fed till their work is over. In this manner they supply a very plentiful table; but still their natural gluttony cannot be reclaimed even by education. They have always while they fish the same string fastened round their throats, to prevent them from devouring their prey, as otherwise they would at once satiate themselves, and discontinue their pursuit the moment they had filled their bellies."

As for the rest, the cormorant is the best fisher of all birds; and, though fat and heavy with the quantity it devours, is neverthelees generally upon the wing. The great activity with which it pursues, and from a vast height drops down to dive after its prey, offers one of the most amusing spectacles to those who stand upon a cliff on the shore. This large bird is seldom seen in the air but where there are fish below; but then they must be near the surface before it will venture to souse upon them. If they are at a depth beyond what the impetus of its flight makes the cormorant capable of diving to, they certainly escape him; for this bird cannot move so fast under water as the fish can swim. It seldom, however, makes an unsuccessful dip, and is often seen rising heavily with a fish larger than it can readily devour. It sometimes also happens that the cormorant has caught the fish by the tail, and consequently the fins prevent its being easily swallowed in that position. In this case the bird is seen to toss its prey above its head, and very dexterously to catch it when descending by the proper end, and so swallow it with ease.

CHAP. V.

OF THE GANNET, OR SOLAND GOOSE.

The gannet is of the size of a tame goose, but its wings are much longer, being six feet across. The bill is six inches long, straight almost to the point, where it inclines downward, the sides being irregularly jagged, so that it may hold its prey with greater security. It differs from the cormorant in size, being larger; in its colour, which is chiefly white; and by its having uo nostrils, but in their place a long furrow that reaches almost to the end of the bill. From the corner of the mouth is a narrow slip of black bare skin, extending to the hind part of the head; beneath this skin is another that, like the pouch of the pelican, is dilatable, and of a size sufficient to contain five or six entire herrings, which in the breeding season it carries at once to its mate or its young.

These birds, which subsist entirely upon fish, chiefly resort to those uninhabited islands where their food is found in plenty, and men seldom come to disturb them. The islands to the north of Scotland, the Skelig Islands on the coast of Kerry in Ireland, and those that lie in the north sea off Norway, abound with them. But it is on the Bass Island in the Firth of Edinburgh where they are seen in the greatest abundance. There is a small island," says the celebrated Harvey, "called the Bass, not more than a mile in circumference. The sur face is almost wholly covered during the months of May and June with their nests, their eggs, and their young. It is scarcely possible to walk without treading upon them; the flocks of birds on the wing are so numerous as to darken the air like a cloud; and their noise is such, that one cannot without difficulty be heard by the person next to him. When one looks down upon the sea from the precipice, its whole surface seems covered with infinite numbers of birds of different kinds, swimming and pursuing their prey. If, in sailing round the island, one surveys its hanging cliffs, in every crag or fissure of the broken rocks may be seen innumerable birds, of various sorts and sizes, amounting to more than the stars, when viewed in a serene night. When viewed at a distance, either receding from or in their approach to the island, they seem like one vast swarm of bees."

They are not less frequent on the rocks of St. Kilda. Martin assures us that the inhabitants of that island consume annually near twenty-three thousand young birds of this species, besides an amazing quantity of their eggs. On these they principally subsist throughout the year; and from the number of these visitants they make an estimate of their plenty for the season. They preserve both the eggs and fowls in pyramidal stone buildings, covering them with turf-ashes to prevent the evaporation of their moisture.

The gannet is a bird of passage. In winter it seeks the more southern coasts of Cornwall, hovering over the shoals of herrings and pilchards that then come down from the northern seas: its first appearance in the northern islands is in the beginning of spring, and it continues to breed till the end of summer. But in general its motions are determined by the migrations of the immense shoal of herrings that come pouring down at that season through the British Channel, and supply all Europe as well as this bird with their spoil. The gannet assiduously attends the shoal in their passage, keeps with them in their whole circuit round our island, and shares with our fishermen this exhaustless banquet. As it is strong of wing it never comes near the land, but is constant to its prey. Wherever the gannet is seen it is sure to announce to the fishermen the arrival of the finny tribe; they then prepare their nets, and take the herrings by millions at a draught; while the gannet, who came to give the first information, comes, though an unbidden guest, and often snatches its prey from the fisherman even in his boat. While the fishing season continues the gannets are busily employed; but when the pilchards disappear from our coasts, the gannet takes its leave to keep them company. The cormorant has been remarked for the quickness of his sight; yet in this the gannet seems to exceed him. It is possessed of a transparent membrane under the eye-lid, with which it covers the whole eye at pleasure without obscuring the sight in the smallest degree. This seems a necessary provision for the security of the eyes of so weighty a creature, whose method of taking prey, like that of the cormorant, is by darting headlong down from a height of a hundred feet and more into the water to seize it. These birds are sometimes taken at sea by fastening a pilchard to a board, which they leave floating. The gannet instantly pounces down from above upon the board, and is killed or maimed by the shock of a body where it expected no resistance.

These birds breed but once a year, and lay but one egg, which, being taken away, they lay another; if that is also taken, then a third, but never more for that season. Their egg is white, and rather less than that of the common goose; and their nest larger, composed of such substances as are found floating on the surface of the sea. The young birds during the first year differ greatly in colour from the old ones-being of a dusky hue, speckled with numerous triangular white spots, and at that time resembling the colours of the speckled diver. The Bass Island, where they chiefly breed, belongs to one proprietor; so that care is taken never to fright away the birds when laying, or to shoot them upon the wing. By that means they are so confident as to alight and feed their young ones close beside you. They feed only upon fish, as was observed; yet the young gannet is counted a great dainty by the Scots, and sold very dear; so that the lord of the islet makes a considerable annual profit by the sale.

CHAP. VI.

OF SMALLER GULLS AND PETRELS.

Having described the manners of the great ones of this tribe, those of the smaller kind may be easily inferred. They resemble the more powerful in their appetites for prey, but have not such certain methods of obtaining it. In general, therefore, the industry of this tribe and their audacity increase in proportion to their imbecility. The great gulls live at the most remote distance from man; the smaller are obliged to reside wherever they can take their prey, and to come into the most populous places when solitude can no longer grant them a supply. In this class we may place the gull, properly so called, of which there are above twenty different kinds-the petrel, of which there are three, and the sea-swallow, of which there are as many. The gulls may be distinguished by an angular knob on the lower chap; the petrels by their wanting this knob; and the sea-swallow by their bills, which are straight, slender, and sharp-pointed. They all, however, agree in their appetites and their places of abode.

The gull and all its varieties is very well known in every part of the kingdom. It is seen, with a slow-sailing flight, hovering over rivers to prey upon the smaller kinds of fish; it is seen following the ploughman in fallow-fields to pick up insects; and when living animal food does not offer, it has even been known to eat carrion, and whatever else of the kind that offers. Gulls are found in great plenty in every place; but it is chiefly round our boldest, rockiest shores that they are seen in the greatest abundance; it is there that the gull breeds and brings up its young; it is there that millions of them are heard screaming with discordant notes for months together.

Those who have been much upon our coasts know that there are two different kinds of shores-that which slants down to the water with a gentle declivity, and that which rises with a precipitate boldness, that seems set as a bulwark to repel the force of the invading deeps. It is to such shores as these that the whole tribe of the gull kind resort, as the rocks offer them a retreat for their young, and the sea a sufficient supply. It is in the cavities of these rocks, of which the shore is composed, that the vast variety of sea-fowls retire to breed in safety. The waves beneath, that continually beat at the base, often wear the shore into an impending boldness; so that it seems to jut out over the water, while the raging of the sea makes the place inaccessible from below. These are the situations to which sea-fowl chiefly resort, and bring up their young in undisturbed security.

Those who have never observed our boldest coasts have no idea of their tremendous sublimity The