A party of Gannets fishing is a beautiful sight; they are not divers like the Cormorant but feed on surface-swimming fish, and in winter often follow the shoals of herring and mackerel. Having marked his fish from high up in the air, the Gannet folds his wings and drops on it perpendicularly, striking the water with great force. When not at its breeding haunts it keeps more out at sea than its rock-loving congeners and is very seldom seen sitting on the shore.
The adult is pure creamy white, buff on the crown and nape, and with black primaries. In their first year the young are brown all over, each feather having a small triangular white spot at the tip. The adult plumage is not assumed until the fifth or sixth year, the plumage during youth being various intermediate stages. Length 34 in.; wing 19 in.
Owing to its shy, retiring, and wary habits, this bird is still fairly common with us. It spends the late summer and winter in marshes by the sides of sluggish rivers and ditches, patiently waiting for some unwary fish to come within striking distance of its formidable bill. Frogs, snakes, rats, and mice are also equally relished, and it is by no means dainty or particular as to its food.
In former days it was strictly protected and used as quarry for hawking, in which chase the Hawk would often receive serious wounds from the deadly dagger-shaped beak.
The Heron nests in colonies on high trees, the nest being built of sticks, lined with small twigs, moss, and wool. Five eggs of a uniform greenish blue form the clutch, and the young, which are extremely helpless when first hatched, are carefully fed by their parents on predigested food. The flight of this species appears slow and lumbering. The legs are carried stretched out behind and the head and neck closely folded in to the body. When disturbed or alarmed they utter a harsh "frank, frank." Although usually nesting inland, they may often be found by the sea-shore in autumn and winter, especially during hard weather when their inland haunts are frozen over.
The adult is bluish grey on the upper parts; the head and neck are white with the exception of the crest, which is bluish black, as well as a row of dark longitudinal markings on either side of the neck. Under parts greyish white. Shoulders bluish black. The young resemble their parents but are browner and lack the long filamentous plumes on the back and base of the neck. The adult plumage is assumed by degrees, not reaching its full beauty till in the fourth or fifth year. Length 34 in.; wing 19 in.