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See also:GANNET (O.E. gavot) or SOLAN See also:GoosE, the Pelecanus bassanus of See also:Linnaeus and the Sula bassana of See also:modern ornithologists, a large See also:sea-See also:fowl See also:long known as a numerous visitor, for the purpose of breeding, to the See also:Bass See also:Rock at the entrance of the See also:Firth of
Gannet, or Solan Goose.
Forth, and to certain other islands off the See also:coast of See also:Britain, of which four are in Scottish waters—namely, Ailsa See also:Craig, at the mouth of the Firth of See also:Clyde; the See also:group known collectively as St Kilda; Suleskerry, some 4o m. See also:north-See also:east of the See also:Butt of See also:Lewis; and the Stack and Skerry, about the same distance westward of See also:Stromness: It appears also to have two stations off the coast of
i The phrase ganotes See also:beef (gannet's See also:bath), a periphrasis for the sea, occurs in the Anglo-Saxon See also:Chronicle, in reference to events which took See also:place A.D. 975, as pointed out by Prof. See also:Cunningham, whose learned See also:treatise on this See also:bird (See also:Ibis, 1866, p. 1) nearly exhausts all that can be said of its See also:history and habits. A few pages further on (p. 13) this writer remarks:—' The name gannet is intimately connected with our modern See also:English gander, both words being modifications of the See also:ancient See also:British ' gan or ' See also:gans,' which is the same word as the modern See also:German ' Gans,' which in its turn corresponds with the old High German ' Kans,' the See also:Greek xi/s, the Latin anser, and the See also:Sanskrit ' hansa,' all of which possess the same signification, viz. a goose. The origin of the names solan or soland, sulan, sula and haf-sula, which are evidently all closely related, is not so obvious. See also:- MARTIN (Martinus)
- MARTIN, BON LOUIS HENRI (1810-1883)
- MARTIN, CLAUD (1735-1800)
- MARTIN, FRANCOIS XAVIER (1762-1846)
- MARTIN, HOMER DODGE (1836-1897)
- MARTIN, JOHN (1789-1854)
- MARTIN, LUTHER (1748-1826)
- MARTIN, SIR THEODORE (1816-1909)
- MARTIN, SIR WILLIAM FANSHAWE (1801–1895)
- MARTIN, ST (c. 316-400)
- MARTIN, WILLIAM (1767-1810)
Martin [ Voy. St Kilda] informs us that ' some imagine that the word solan comes from the Irish souler, corrupted and adapted to the Scottish See also:language, gui oculis irretortis e longinguo respiciat praedam.' The earlier writers in See also:general derive the word from the Latin solea,iu consequence of the bird's supposed See also:habit of hatching its See also:egg with its See also:foot; and in a See also:note intercalated into See also:Ray's description of the solan goose in the edition of his Itineraries published by the Ray Society, and edited by Dr Lankester, we are told, though no authority for the statement is given, that ' the gannet, Sula See also:alba, should be written See also:solent goose, i.e. a channel goose.' " Hereon an editorial note remarks that this last statement appears to have been a See also:suggestion of See also:Yarrell's, and that it seems at least as possible that the " Solent" took its name from the bird.
See also:Ireland, the Skellig Islands and the Stags of Broadhaven, and it resorts besides to See also:Lundy See also:Island in the See also:Bristol Channel—its only English breeding-place. Farther to the northward its settlements are Myggenaes, the most See also:westerly of the Faeroes, and various small islands off the coast of See also:Iceland, of which the Vestmannaeyjar, the Reykjanes Fuglasker and Grimsey are the See also:chief. On the western See also:side of the See also:Atlantic it appears to have but five stations, one in the See also:Bay of See also:Fundy, and four rocks in the Gulf of St See also:- LAWRENCE
- LAWRENCE (LAURENTIUS, LORENZO), ST
- LAWRENCE, AMOS (1786—1852)
- LAWRENCE, AMOS ADAMS (1814–1886)
- LAWRENCE, GEORGE ALFRED (1827–1876)
- LAWRENCE, JOHN LAIRD MAIR LAWRENCE, 1ST BARON (1811-1879)
- LAWRENCE, SIR HENRY MONTGOMERY (1806–1857)
- LAWRENCE, SIR THOMAS (1769–1830)
- LAWRENCE, STRINGER (1697–1775)
Lawrence. On all these seventeen places the bird arrives about the end of See also:March or in See also:April and departs in autumn when its See also:young are ready to See also:fly; but even during the breeding-See also:season many of the adults may be seen on their fishing excursions at a vast distance from their See also:home, while at other times of the See also:year their range is greater still, for they not only frequent the North Sea and the English Channel, but stray to the Baltic, and, in See also:winter, extend their See also:flight to the Madeiras, while the members of the See also:species of See also:American See also:birth See also:traverse the ocean from the shores of See also:Greenland to the Gulf of See also:Mexico.
Apparently as bulky as a goose, and with longer wings and tail, the gannet weighs considerably less. The plumage of the adult is See also:- WHITE
- WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON (1832– )
- WHITE, GILBERT (1720–1793)
- WHITE, HENRY KIRKE (1785-1806)
- WHITE, HUGH LAWSON (1773-1840)
- WHITE, JOSEPH BLANCO (1775-1841)
- WHITE, RICHARD GRANT (1822-1885)
- WHITE, ROBERT (1645-1704)
- WHITE, SIR GEORGE STUART (1835– )
- WHITE, SIR THOMAS (1492-1567)
- WHITE, SIR WILLIAM ARTHUR (1824--1891)
- WHITE, SIR WILLIAM HENRY (1845– )
- WHITE, THOMAS (1628-1698)
- WHITE, THOMAS (c. 1550-1624)
white, tinged on the See also:head and See also:neck with See also:buff, while the See also:outer edge and See also:principal quills of the wings are See also:black, and some See also:bare spaces See also:round the eyes and on the See also:throat reveal a dark See also:blue skin. The first plumage of the young is of a deep See also:- BROWN
- BROWN, CHARLES BROCKDEN (1771-181o)
- BROWN, FORD MADOX (1821-1893)
- BROWN, FRANCIS (1849- )
- BROWN, GEORGE (1818-188o)
- BROWN, HENRY KIRKE (1814-1886)
- BROWN, JACOB (1775–1828)
- BROWN, JOHN (1715–1766)
- BROWN, JOHN (1722-1787)
- BROWN, JOHN (1735–1788)
- BROWN, JOHN (1784–1858)
- BROWN, JOHN (1800-1859)
- BROWN, JOHN (1810—1882)
- BROWN, JOHN GEORGE (1831— )
- BROWN, ROBERT (1773-1858)
- BROWN, SAMUEL MORISON (1817—1856)
- BROWN, SIR GEORGE (1790-1865)
- BROWN, SIR JOHN (1816-1896)
- BROWN, SIR WILLIAM, BART
- BROWN, THOMAS (1663-1704)
- BROWN, THOMAS (1778-1820)
- BROWN, THOMAS EDWARD (1830-1897)
- BROWN, WILLIAM LAURENCE (1755–1830)
brown above, but paler beneath, and each See also:feather is tipped with a triangular white spot. The See also:nest is a shallow depression, either on the ground itself or on a See also:pile of See also:turf, grass and seaweed—which last is often conveyed from a See also:great distance. The single egg it contains has a white See also:- SHELL
- SHELL (O. Eng. scell, scyll, cf. Du. sceel, shell, Goth. skalja, tile; the word means originally a thin flake,. cf. Swed. skalja, to peel off; it is allied to " scale " and " skill," from a root meaning to cleave, divide, separate)
shell of the same chalky See also:character as a See also:cormorant's. The young are hatched See also:blind and naked, but the See also:slate-coloured skin_ with which their See also:body is covered is soon clothed with white down, replaced in due See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time by true feathers of the dark See also:colour already mentioned. The mature plumage is believed not to be attained for some three years. Towards the end of summer the See also:majority of gannets, both old and young, leave the neighbourhood of their breeding-place, and, betaking themselves to the open sea, follow the shoals of See also:herrings and other fishes (the presence of which they are most useful in indicating to fishermen) to a great distance from See also:land. Their See also:prey is almost invariably captured by plunging upon it from a height, and a See also:company of gannets fishing presents a curious and interesting spectacle. Flying in a See also:line, each bird, when it comes over the shoal, closes its wings and dashes perpendicularly into the waves, whence it emerges after a few seconds, and, shaking the See also:water from its feathers, mounts in a wide See also:curve, and orderly takes its place in the See also:rear of the See also:string, to repeat is headlong plunge so soon as it again finds itself above its
prey .2
Structurally the gannet presents many points worthy of note, such as its closed nostrils, its aborted See also:tongue, and its toes all connected by a web—characters which it possesses in See also:common with most of the other members of the group of birds (Steganopodes) to which it belongs. But more remarkable still is the See also:system of subcutaneous See also:air-cells, some of large See also:size, pervading almost the whole See also:surface of the body, communicating with the lungs, and capable of being inflated or emptied at the will of the bird. This peculiarity has attracted the See also:attention of several writers—Montagu, See also:Sir R. See also:Owen (Proc. Zool. See also:Soc., 1831, p. 90), and See also:Macgillivray.
In the See also:southern hemisphere the gannet is represented by two nearly allied but somewhat smaller forms—one, Sula capensis, inhabiting the coast of See also:South See also:Africa, and the other, S. serrator, the Australian seas. Both much resemble the See also:northern bird, but
2 The large number of gannets, and the vast quantity of See also:fish they take, has been frequently animadverted upon, but the computations on this last point are perhaps fallacious. It seems to be certain that in former days fishes, and herrings in particular, were at least as plentiful as now, if not more so, notwithstanding that gannets were more numerous. Those frequenting the Bass were reckoned by Macgillivray at 20,000 in 1831, while in 1869 they were computed at 12,000, showing a decrease of two-fifths in 38 years. On Ailsa in 1869 there were supposed to be as many as on the Bass, but their number was estimated at io,000 in 1877 (See also:Report on the See also:Herring See also:Fisheries of See also:Scotland, 1878, pp. See also:xxv. and 171),-being a diminution of one-See also:sixth in eight years, or nearly twice as great as on the Bass.
the former seems to have a permanently black tail, and the latter a tail the four See also:middle feathers of which are blackish-brown with white shafts.
Apparently inseparable from the gannets generically are the smaller birds well known to sailors as boobies, from the extra-See also:ordinary stupidity they commonly display. They differ, how-ever, in having no median stripe of bare skin down the front of the throat; they almost invariably breed upon trees and are inhabitants of warmer climates. One of them, S. cyanops, when adult has much of the aspect of a gannet, but S. piscator is readily distinguishable by its red legs, and S. leucogaster by its upper plumage and neck of deep brown. These three are widely distributed within the tropics, and are in some places exceedingly abundant. The See also:fourth, S. variegata, which seems to preserve throughout its See also:life the spotted suit characteristic of the immature S. bassana, has a much more limited range, being as yet only known from the coast of See also:Peru, where it is one of the birds which contribute to the formation of See also:guano. (A.
End of Article: GANNET (O.E. gavot)
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