By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild] [Tring.
FRIGATE-BIRDS AT HOME.
The feathers of frigate-birds are used for head-dresses in the Pacific Islands.
Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green.
YOUNG GANNETS, FIRST YEAR.
The plumage at this stage is very dark brown, each feather being tipped with white.
Gannets breed in colonies of thousands on the islands off the east and west coasts of Scotland. They lay but a single egg, in a nest composed of seaweed deposited in inaccessible crags of precipitous cliffs. The young are at first naked; later they become clothed with long white down. "At one time," says Mr. Howard Saunders, "young gannets were much esteemed as food, from 1,500 to 2,000 being taken in a season during the month of August. They are hooked up, killed, and flung into the sea, where a boat is waiting to pick up the bodies. These are plucked, cleaned, and half roasted, after which they are sold at from eightpence to a shilling each.... The fat is boiled down into oil, and the feathers, after being well baked, are used for stuffing beds, about a hundred birds producing a stone of feathers."
Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green.