GANNET, Su/a, a genus of web-footed birds, of the family pelecani&e, having a long, strong, conical bill, the face and throat naked, the feet with four toes, three before and one behind, all united by the web. To this the booby (q.v.) belongs. Another species of the COMMON G., or SOLAN GOOSE (S. bassana). a bird which breeds on insular rocks in the northern seas, and migrates in winter to warmer and even tropical regions. The name solar or soland goose is from solent, an old name of the English channel. The entire length of the G. is about 3 ft.; its general color milk-white, the crown and back of the bead pale yellow, the quill-feathers of the wings black. The G. lays usually a single egg, of a chalky white color; the young bird, when newlY hatched, has a naked bluish-black skin, but soon becomes covered with a thick white down, so that it resem bles a powder-puff, or a mass of cotton; and when the true feathers appear, they are black, with lines and spots of dull white, so that the plumage of the young is very unlike that of the mature bird. • The G. is long-lived, and takes about four years to come to maturity. Its on land are very awkward; hut it is a bird of very powerful wing and graceful Hight. It extends its flight to great distances from the rocks whick it inhabits, pursuing shoals chiefly of such fish as swim near the surface, particularly herrinss pilchards, and others of the same family. The presence of a shoal of pilchards often becomes known to the Cornwall fishermen from the attendant gannets. When feeding, the G. always flies against the wind at an altitude of not more than about 100 ft. above the surface of the sea. When it espies a fish it instantaneously stops, and with wings half distended, stoops and swiftly cleaves the air. When within a yard or
two of the surface, and just as it makes the plunge, the wings are- clapped close to its sides. Thus the bird enters the water like a bolt. The G. is found in every continent; Lundy isle, the Bass Rock, Ailsa, St. Kilda, Suliskeiry, and 'Skelig (Irelt.nd), being the most celebrated British breeding places. The number of gannets that annually visit the Baas Rock in the firth of Forth is estimated-at from sixteen to The young are killed by cliff-men who are lowered down the rock by ft rope; they are valued for the sake of their down, flesh, and oil, which bring a profit to the person who rents the rock. On and 'around the Bass, gannets are seen in prodigious numbers, the air around the rock being filled with them, like bees around a hive, and the rock itself whitened by them and their accumulated excrements. Their nests are formed of sea-weeds and Marine grasses. The G., during incubation, will often allow itself to be touched with a stick without rising from the nest. Its flesh is rank and oily ; hut that of the young, baked, is eaten to a considerable extent in many places, and is even reckoned a delicacy. The eggs are considered by ninny connoisseurs to be a decided delicacy. They are boiled for 20 minutes, and eaten cold, with vinegar, salt, and pepper. The voice of the G. is harsh, and the cries of the multitudinous birds, when disturbed at their breeding-places, are deafening. The G. comes to its breeding-places in the beginning of April, and leaves in autumn. A species of G. (S. variegate), extremely abundant in some parts of the southern hemisphere, is said to be the chief producer of guano.