The prevalent colour of the full-plumaged bird is white, the tips of its wings only being black, and some black lines about the face, resembling eyebrows or spectacles. The naked skin of the face is blue, the eyes pale yellow, and the head and neck buff-colour. The plumage of the young bird is very different, being blackish, spotted irregularly with small white specks. The habits of the gannet are strictly marine, and it breeds, like other sea-birds, on precipitous rocks, where it forms a rude nest of reeds and grass. In some localities, as on the island-rock of St. Kilda, and others of the Hebrides, the gannets congregate in vast numbers. Twenty-two thousand birds, besides immense numbers of eggs, are annually consumed in St. Kilda alone, without seriously injuring the colony. The birds are still so numerous there that it is supposed they destroy annually a hundred millions of herrings. Their mode of fishing is quite peculiar, and singularly graceful. Hovering to and fro, with rapid flight, over the surface of the sea, when it spies a fish swimming below, the gannet suddenly rises perpendicularly over the spot, and then, closing its wings, drops head foremost on its prey, with more than arrowy speed, and almost unerring aim. It feeds entirely on fish, and chiefly on the various kinds of herrings. Besides those captured for food, large numbers are annually destroyed for the sake of the valuable down.

The family of Larida, containing the Gulls, Terns, and Petrels, has been incidentally mentioned in a former chapter. It consists of a large number of species, peculiarly oceanic in their habits, and widely scattered over the world. Many of the species, besides visiting the shores

of Northern Europe and Arctic America, extend their flights to far southern latitudes, and some appear to live constantly on the open sea, except when they visit the shore in the breeding-season. All are remarkable for the strength of their flight, and the easy grace of their motions as they soar or glide through the air with a scarcely perceptible movement of wing; but some are much more active than others. Their form is elegant, and well-proportioned: some, as the terns, resemble swallows in shape, and rapidity of flight; and others, as several of the gulls, seem analogous to pigeons. Almost all undergo remarkable changes of plumage at different ages, and some have also an annual change, the colours at the breeding-season becoming darker. This change rapidly takes place, without any moulting, the feathers of the head, which are originally white, gradually assuming a dark-brown or black colour. These birds are mostly voracious feeders, seizing indifferently on dead or living animal substances found floating on the sea, or thrown up at the recess of the tide. Large flocks both of gulls and terns are then busy with the Mollusca and Radiata on the sands; and at other times they may be seen hovering over the water, on the watch for any floating animal substance. This they perceive from a considerable height and secure by a rapid descent and pounce; sometimes by merely curving down and skimming the surface; at other times, by closing the wings, and dropping suddenly under water. Both sexes in the gulls have similar plumage; but the males are known by being of larger size than the female. Their cry is peculiar, between a scream and a laugh, and, if heard in

228

THE KITTY-WAKE AND SKUA.

their wilder haunts, among precipitous rocks, and dashing waves, however discordant, is not unpleasing, when, perhaps, it is the only sound proceeding from a living thing that disturbs the solitude. Heard, as I have often heard it, on the summit of cliffs eight or nine hundred feet high, rising from the depths below, where each individual bird looks like a floating speck of foam, it gives a spirit to the scene that ever after attaches to the recollection of it. Various are the species of gulls that breed upon our coasts, and various the stations they prefer. The kitty-wake (Larus tridactylus), so called from its cry, prefers the highest and steepest crags, where it perches its sea-weed nest on almost inaccessible ledges. Others build on flatter shores, or less secluded places. Some, like the skua (Lestris catarractes), have been called parasites, from their predacious habits. "They rarely take the trouble to fish for themselves; but, watching the gulls while thus employed, they no sooner observe one to have been successful than they immediately give chase, pursuing it with fury, and obliging it, from fright, to disgorge the recently-swallowed fish; they descend after it to catch it, and are frequently so rapid and certain in their movements and aim, as to seize their prize before it reaches the water." * From the nature of their food all the birds of the family are extremely oily, and many have the habit, when captured, of vomiting up quantities of clear oil, of a very offensive smell, and this apparently as a means of defence. The fulmar (Procellaria glacialis), a large grey and white species, that forms very populous colonies on some of the remoter western

* Yarrell, vol. iii. p. 603.

islands of Scotland, and is occasionally seen elsewhere, is remarkable for the quantity of this oil which it disgorges. Yet, notwithstanding its strong-tasted flesh, it is eagerly sought after by the islanders, who annually consume many thousands of the young birds, besides multitudes of eggs. In pursuit of these the intrepid fowler has to ascend or descend frightful precipices, or to hang suspended in mid-air. The birds, according to Mr. Macgillivray, build only on the steep faces of the cliff, where small patches of grass here and there occur : "The nest is formed of herbage, seldom bulky, generally a mere shallow excavation in the turf, lined with dried grass, and the withered tufts of sea-pink, in which the bird deposits a single egg, of a pure white colour when clean, which is seldom the case, and varying in size from two and a half to three inches in length, by two inches in breadth." The smallest bird of the family, and the smallest web-footed bird known, is the storm-petrel (Thalassidroma pelagica), well known to mariners by the name of Mother Carey's Chicken, and dreaded by them from its supposed appearance immediately before a storm. In a sailor's superstition it is believed to rise out of the sea. This little creature lives almost constantly at sea, except during the breeding-season, when it visits maritime rocks, and unfrequented parts of the coast, and there deposits its solitary egg in holes or crevices. It feeds on any floating animal substance, or on such small soft animals as it can master; and when at sea, may be seen constantly flying about hither and thither, at a short distance from the surface, on the watch for prey. Its name, Petrel, is given, Mr. Yarrell

230

MOTHER CARY'S CHICKEN.

tells us, from its "habit of paddling along the surface, from the Apostle Peter, who walked on the sea."

The last little bird of which we have spoken ends the list of our marine birds, and naturally suggests to us a storm, as a storm does a shipwreck; and from a shipwreck to floating pieces of timber, or drift-wood, the passage is easy and natural. We shall now inquire whether such floating spars are worth examining. They often come ashore covered externally with barnacles, and pierced through and through by the Teredo and Limnoria. All these animals have something interesting in their history. The common barnacle (Pentelasmis anatifera) has a fabulous history sufficiently