. Field observations on British birds . age is assumed. The time whichelapses before the final stage is reached, has been variously stated by authors as 2, 3, 4, 4!, 5and I) years. Vide The Gannet, by J. H. Gurney (p. 4S4), who himself favours 2\ to 3 years.—Editor. t Xon-breeding birds in immature plumage are fairly numerous on the Bass Rock, andmay be .seen in the immediate neighbourhood of the breeding-colonies.— Editor. 24 Gannets and keeping up a constant guttural quarrel, occasionally snappingwith their beaks, and making a great clatter, but apparently doingno real damage. Some were sitt
. Field observations on British birds . age is assumed. The time whichelapses before the final stage is reached, has been variously stated by authors as 2, 3, 4, 4!, 5and I) years. Vide The Gannet, by J. H. Gurney (p. 4S4), who himself favours 2\ to 3 years.—Editor. t Xon-breeding birds in immature plumage are fairly numerous on the Bass Rock, andmay be .seen in the immediate neighbourhood of the breeding-colonies.— Editor. 24 Gannets and keeping up a constant guttural quarrel, occasionally snappingwith their beaks, and making a great clatter, but apparently doingno real damage. Some were sitting on their solitary egg or brooding theirchicks, others were engaged in feeding their young. The mannerin which this is effected varies according to the age of the young ;in the case of the newly-hatched nestling, the mother, standing bythe side of the nest, regurgitates a quantity of semi-digested fishinto her mouth, lowers her head to the level of the little nakedmonstrosity, opens her bill widely, and the young one inserts its. Fig. I. bill and takes such food as it requires, or as the mother thinks goodfor it. As the young grow older and stronger, the same sort ofproceeding is followed, only the young now thrusts the whole lengthof its head and neck down into the mothers gullet, pushing itselfin as far as it possibly can, and taking the food out of its motherscrop. Finally, as they attain nearly their full size, they are fed onthe natural fish as they are brought in by the parents. As I climbed down, the Gannets with fresh eggs made off tosea at once, but those with much-incubated eggs and young werevery loth to leave, and some I could almost touch with my handbefore they would stir. Some few of the nests were empt} ; probablythey had been robbed by the Great Black-backed Gulls, for there Gannets 25 were a pair or two of these birds on the island, but the majorit}contained either young or a single egg, small for the size of the bird,pale blue in ground colour, and ove
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirdsgr, bookyear1920
