male is perpetually upon the wing for food, with which he plentifully supplies her. This is the more necessary, as there are many other birds, as hawks, gulls, &c. constantly upon the watch to seize the eggs, if the female leave them uncovered for an instant. While she is sitting, she is so stupid, or so courageous, (it is hard to say which, as she makes no defence,) as to allow herself to be knocked off the nest rather than leave it on the

approach of a man.

The eggs are very good food, and have this remarkable property, that the white does not harden, like other eggs.

;

It is for these eggs principally, that this bird is looked after as they are much used at the Cape of Good Hope; while the body is totally useless for any purpose; even savages will not willingly eat its flesh. But its bones are converted into various uses; of them needlecases, tobacco-pipes, and such things are made and its intestines are also serviceable, being blown up and stretched by the inhabitants of the South Sea islands, for buoys to their nets in place of bladders. The albatross is often attacked by another bird of the same kind with itself (which is rather uncommon in the brute creation) called a skua; this, when the albatross is upon the wing, attacks him

from below and kills him by wounds in the belly; and the only mode the other has of avoiding this fate is by settling upon the water; where, however, he is not safe, for the remains of many of them have been cast on shore, as if torn by that voracious fish, the shark.

THE GANNET.

This bird belongs to the class called pelicans; it is of a very large size, being in its weight from six to eight pounds, in length from the bill to the tail more than a yard, and from the tip of one wing to that of the other, if stretched upwards of two yards. This remarkable length of its wings has induced some persons to think that it never rests, nay, that if it did settle upon

it would find it impossi

the surface of the sea, ble to rise again. This however is not true, for it has been seen floating upon the water, though this indeed happens very rarely. What we have said above concerning the rapacity of the albatross, is literally trifling, when compared with the appetite of the gannet. This latter seems to live for no other purposes than those of eating and sleeping; when upon the wing, it may be observed floating along with one eye turned

downwards and looking in'ently upon the water; when it sees any fish it instantly plunges down with astonishing quickness

and force, and very rarely fails of success. It then rises again and pursues the same course, until it is indeed unable to swallow more; in this state it returns to land, and (though a webfooted bird) perches only upon trees, nearly asleep and insensible of danger, until hunger drives it again to sea.

The Gannet is also called the Solan Goose, from a word which in various languages, and among them the Irish, signifies a quickness of sight. The name is well-deserved, for this bird will see a fish under water, from a height of one hundred and fifty feet, and when it does, an arrow could not descend with greater rapidity. Sailors amuse themselves with catching the gannet by a curious device; they fasten a fish to a board, which is allowed to sink a few inches below the surface. When the bird perceives the fish it immediately darts down, and, unconscious of any danger drives its bill forward with such force as to penetrate the wood to the depth of an inch and a half, by which means it is caught, as it cannot disengage its bill.

The eggs of this bird are very nourishing; the young also are excellent eating, before they begin to fish for themselves; at this time, these are often so fat as to have three inches under the skin before you reach the flesh. It would lay but one egg if undisturbed; if that be taken away, a second, and so on to a considerable number. This circumstance is taken advantage of by those who wish for the eggs; they steal the first from the nest without terrifying the bird; when a second is laid, they take that too; and at last, they leave the bird to hatch a young one, which, however, they ge-. nerally find means to take also. If it were not for the incredible numbers of this bird, the dangers to which it is exposed, and from which its stupidity prevents all escape, would soon occasion its extermination. But in some islands, the gannets breed in such abundance that the rocks and the sea are really covered with them; they fly in such numbers as to darken the sky; and the noise they make is sufficient to prevent your hearing a person with whom you may be conversing. At the breeding season their nests are so thick upon the ground that it is scarcely possible to walk among them without trampling upon the eggs and the young; and the females, as they sit, will pull at your clothes without attempting to go away from the nests.