In an adult male, the tongue is 1 inch and 2 twelfths long, fleshy, and of the same general form as in the other ducks already described. The œsophagus is 6 3/4 inches long, passes along the right side, has a diameter at the top of 4 1/2 twelfths, enlarges about the middle to 9 twelfths, and contracts to 1/2 inch as it enters the thorax. The proventriculus is 1 inch long, 8 twelfths in its greatest diameter, its glandules, which are of moderate size, forming a complete belt, as in all other ducks. The stomach is a muscular gizzard of a roundish form, 1 inch 5 twelfths long, 1 inch 4 twelfths in breadth; its lateral muscles 5 twelfths in thickness; its epithelium tough, hard, and slightly rugous. The intestine is 3 feet 11 inches long; its average diameter 3 twelfths, its walls thick, and its inner surface villous. The rectum is 3 inches long; the cœca 2 1/4 inches in length, their diameter at the commencement 1 twelfth, towards the end 2 twelfths.
The trachea is 5 inches long, much flattened, its rings unossified, its diameter at the top 2 3/4 twelfths, towards the lower part 3 twelfths, having scarcely any appearance of dilatation at the part which is so excessively enlarged in the Golden-eyed Duck, which in form and habits is yet very closely allied. The lateral muscles are strong, and there are cleido-tracheal and sterno-tracheal muscles, as in other ducks.
COMMON GANNET.
Sula bassana, Lacep.
PLATE CCCXXVI. Adult Male and Young.
On the morning of the 14th of June 1833, the white sails of the Ripley were spread before a propitious breeze, and onward she might be seen gaily wending her way toward the shores of Labrador. We had well explored the Magdalene Islands, and were anxious to visit the Great Gannet Rock, where, according to our pilot, the birds from which it derives its name bred. For several days I had observed numerous files proceeding northward, and marked their mode of flight while thus travelling. As our bark dashed through the heaving billows, my anxiety to reach the desired spot increased. At length, about ten o’clock, we discerned at a distance a white speck, which our pilot assured us was the celebrated rock of our wishes. After a while I could distinctly see its top from the deck, and thought that it was still covered with snow several feet deep. As we approached it, I imagined that the atmosphere around was filled with flakes, but on my turning to the pilot, who smiled at my simplicity, I was assured that nothing was in sight but the Gannets and their island home. I rubbed my eyes, took up my glass, and saw that the strange dimness of the air before us was caused by the innumerable birds, whose white bodies and black-tipped pinions produced a blended tint of light-grey. When we had advanced to within half a mile, this magnificent veil of floating Gannets was easily seen, now shooting upwards, as if intent on reaching the sky, then descending as if to join the feathered masses below, and again diverging toward either side and sweeping over the surface of the ocean. The Ripley now partially furled her sails, and lay to, when all on board were eager to scale the abrupt sides of the mountain isle, and satisfy their curiosity.
Judge, Reader, of our disappointment. The weather, which hitherto had been beautiful, suddenly changed, and we were assailed by a fearful storm. However, the whale-boat was hoisted over, and manned by four sturdy “down-easters,” along with Thomas Lincoln and my son. I remained on board the Ripley, and commenced my distant observations, which I shall relate in due time.
An hour has elapsed; the boat, which had been hid from our sight, is now in view; the waves run high, and all around looks dismal. See what exertions the rowers make; it blows a hurricane, and each successive billow seems destined to overwhelm their fragile bark. My anxiety is intense, as you may imagine; in the midst of my friends and the crew I watch every movement of the boat, now balanced on the very crest of a rolling and foaming wave, now sunk far into the deep trough. We see how eagerly yet calmly they pull. My son stands erect, steering with a long oar, and Lincoln is bailing the water which is gaining on him, for the spray ever and anon dashes over the bow. But they draw near, a rope is thrown and caught, the whale-boat is hauled close under our lee-board; in a moment more all are safe on deck, the helm round, the schooner to, and away under bare poles she scuds toward Labrador.
Thomas Lincoln and my son were much exhausted, and the sailors required a double allowance of grog. A quantity of eggs of various kinds, and several birds, had been procured, for wherever sufficient room for a gannet’s nest was not afforded on the rock, one or two Guillemots occupied the spot, and on the ledges below the Kittiwakes lay thick like snow-flakes. The discharging of their guns produced no other effect than to cause the birds killed or severely wounded to fall into the water, for the cries of the countless multitudes drowned every other noise. The party had their clothes smeared with the nauseous excrements of hundreds of gannets and other birds, which in shooting off from their nests caused numerous eggs to fall, of which some were procured entire. The confusion on and around the rock was represented as baffling all description; and as we gazed on the mass now gradually fading on our sight, we all judged it well worth the while to cross the ocean to see such a sight. But yet it was in some measure a painful sight to me, for I had not been able to land on this great breeding-place, of which, however, I here present a description given by our pilot Mr Godwin.
“The top of the main rock is a quarter of a mile wide, from north to south, but narrower in the other direction. Its elevation is estimated at about four hundred feet. It stands in Lat. 47° 52´. The surf beats its base with great violence, unless after a long calm, and it is extremely difficult to land upon it, and still more so to ascend to the top or platform. The only point on which a boat may be landed lies on the south side, and the moment the boat strikes it must be hauled dry on the rocks. The whole surface of the upper platform is closely covered with nests, placed about two feet asunder, and in such regular order that a person may see between the lines, which run north and south, as if looking along the furrows of a deeply ploughed field. The Labrador fishermen and others who annually visit this extraordinary resort of the Gannets, for the purpose of procuring their flesh to bait their cod-fish hooks, ascend armed with heavy short clubs, in parties of eight, ten, or more, and at once begin their work of destruction. At sight of these unwelcome intruders, the affrighted birds rise on wing with a noise like thunder, and fly off in such a hurried and confused manner as to impede each other’s progress, by which thousands are forced downwards, and accumulate into a bank many feet high; the men beating and killing them with their clubs until fatigued, or satisfied with the number they have slain.” Here Mr Godwin assured us that he had visited the Gannet Rock ten seasons in succession, for the purpose just mentioned, and added, that on one of these occasions, “six men had destroyed five hundred and forty Gannets in about an hour, after which the party rested a while, and until most of the living birds had left their immediate neighbourhood, for all around them, beyond the distance of about a hundred yards, thousands of Gannets were yet sitting on their nests, and the air was filled with multitudes of others. The dead birds are now roughly skinned, and the flesh of the breast cut up in pieces of different sizes, which will keep good for bait about a fortnight or three weeks. So great is the destruction of these birds for the purpose mentioned, that the quantity of their flesh so procured supplies with bait upwards of forty boats, which lie fishing close to the Island of Brion each season. By the 20th of May the rock is covered with birds on their nests and eggs, and about a month afterwards the young are hatched. The earth is scratched by the birds for a few inches deep, and the edges surrounded by sea-weeds and other rubbish, to the height of eight or ten inches, tolerably well matted together. Each female Gannet lays a single egg, which is pure white, but not larger than a good-sized hen’s egg. When the young are hatched, they are bluish-black, and for a fortnight or more their skin is not unlike that of the common dog-fish. They gradually become downy and white, and when five or six weeks old look like great lumps of carded wool.”
I was well pleased with this plain statement of our pilot, as I had with my glass observed the regularity of the lines of nests, and seen many of the birds digging the earth with their strong bills, while hundreds of them were carrying quantities of that long sea-weed called Eel-grass, which they seem to bring from towards the Magdalene Islands. While the Ripley lay to near the rock, thousands of the Gannets constantly flew over our heads; and although I shot at and brought several to the water, neither the reports nor the sight of their dead companions seemed to make any impression on them.