_Anno_, 1512. _Anno_, 1833.
Crane, Sixteen pence.
Heron, Twelve pence. Three to four shillings.
Mallard, Two pence. Three to five shillings.
Teal, One penny. Two shillings, to three
shillings.
Widgeon, One penny. Eighteen pence to three
shillings.
Shoveller, Sixpence.
Woodcock, One penny or three
half-pence. Three to ten shillings.
Lapwing, One penny. Nine pence to a shilling a
couple.
Sea gulls, (black-
headed gulls,) One penny to three half-pence.
Sturts, (purrs,) Sixpence a dozen. Three pence each.
Quail, Two pence. Two to three shillings.
Snipes, Three pence a dozen. One shilling to two shillings
each.
Shoveller, Sixpence.
Woodcock, One penny or three
half-pence. Three to ten shillings.
Partridge, Two pence. Eighteen pence to three
shillings.
Redshank, One penny. One shilling to fifteen pence.
Bittern, Twelve pence. Five to seven shillings.
Pheasant, Twelve pence. Four to eight shillings.
Rey, (land rails,) Two pence. Two to five shillings.
Curlew, Twelve pence. Two shillings (stone curlew
three shillings).
Peacock, Twelve pence. Ten to twenty shillings.
Ruffs and Reeves, Four shillings if fatted, one
shilling to two shillings if
shot.
Knot, One penny. Two to three shillings.
Dottrell, One penny. Two shillings each.
Bustard, One to three guineas.
Terns, Four pence a dozen.
Small Birds, Twelve pence a dozen.
GAMMON, _s._ The buttock of a hog salted and dried; a term at
backgammon for winning the game.
GANDER, _s._ The male of the goose.
GANGRENE, _s._ A mortification, a stoppage of circulation followed
by putrefaction.
GANGRENE, _v._ To corrupt to mortification.
GANGRENOUS, _a._ Mortified, or betokening mortification.
GANNET, GAN, SOLAND, or SOLAN GOOSE, (_Pelicanus bassanus_, LINN.;
_Le Fou de Bassan_, BUFF.) _s._
[Illustration]
The gannet is generally about seven pounds in weight, three feet in
length, and six in breadth. The bill is of a pale or lead-coloured blue,
six inches long, a little jagged on the edges, strong and straight to
the tip, which is inclined a little downwards; the upper bill is
furnished with a distinct rib or ridge, running along from the tip
nearly to its base, on each side of which it is furrowed, without any
visible appearance of nostrils; the tongue is small, and placed far
within the mouth, all the inside of which is black; a darkish line
passes from the brow over the eyes, which are surrounded with a naked
blue skin, and, like those of the owl, are set in the head so as to look
nearly straight forward, and the extreme paleness of the irides gives
them a keen wild stare. The gape of the mouth is very wide, and seems
more lengthened by a slip of naked black skin, which is extended on each
side from the corners beyond the cheeks; these features of its
countenance, altogether give it the appearance of wearing spectacles. A
loose black, bare, dilatable skin, capable of great distension, hung
from the blades of the under bill, and extended over the throat, serves
it as a pouch to carry provisions to its mate or its young. The body is
flat and well clothed with feathers; the neck long; the crown of the
head, nape, and, in some specimens, the hinder part of the neck, are of
a buff colour; greater quills and bastard wings black, and the rest of
the plumage white. The tail is wedge-shaped, and consists of twelve
tapering sharp-pointed feathers, the middle ones the longest. The legs
and feet are nearly of the same colour and conformation as those of the
cormorant, but they are curiously marked by a pea-green stripe, which
runs down each shin, and branches off along every one of the toes. The
male and female are nearly alike, but the young birds, during the first
year, appear as if they were of a distinct species, for their plumage is
then of a dusky colour, speckled all over with triangular white spots.
The female makes her nest in the caverns and fissures, or on the ledges
of the lowering precipice, as well as on the plain surface of the
ground; it is formed of a great quantity of withered grasses and
sea-weeds of various kinds, gathered with much labour from the barren
soil, or picked up floating about upon the water. She lays three eggs,
of a white colour, and somewhat less than those of a goose, although
ornithologists assert that she will lay only one egg, if left to herself
undisturbed, and that when this egg is taken away she then lays a
second, and in like manner a third, which she is generally permitted to
hatch, and rear the young one.
The male and female hatch and fish by turns; the fisher returns to the
nest with five or six herrings in its gorget, all entire and undigested,
which the hatcher pulls out from the throat of its provider, and
swallows them, making at the same time a loud noise.
These birds are common on the coasts of Norway and Iceland, and are said
to be met with in great numbers about New Holland, and New Zealand; they
breed also on the coasts of Newfoundland, and migrate southward along
the American shores as far as South Carolina; they are noticed, indeed,
by navigators, as being met with, dispersed over both hemispheres, which
are probably one great family spread over the whole globe; but their
greatest known rendezvous is the Hebrides and other solitary rocky isles
of North Britain, where their nests, in the months of May and June, are
described as so closely placed together, that it is difficult to walk
without treading upon some of them; and it is said that the swarms of
the old birds are so prodigious, that when they rise into the air, they
stun the ear with their noise, and overshadow the ground like the
clouds.
At the small island of Borea, Martin says, “The heavens were darkened by
those flying above our heads; their excrements were in such quantity,
that they gave a tincture to the sea, and at the same time sullied our
boat and clothes.” Besides this small island of Borea, and St. Kila,
noticed by Martin, Pennant and other writers mention the isle of Ailsa,
in the Frith of Clyde; the Stack of Souliskerry, near the Orkneys; the
Skellig Isles, off the coast of Kerry, Ireland; and the Bass Isle, in
the Frith of Forth. This last-mentioned isle is farmed out at a
considerable rent, for the eggs of the various kinds of water-fowl with
which it swarms; and the produce of the solan geese forms a large
portion of this rent; for great numbers of their young ones are taken
every season, and sold in Edinburgh for about twenty-pence each, where
they are esteemed a favourite dish, being generally roasted, and eaten
before dinner. On the other bleak and bare isles, the inhabitants,
during a great part of the year, depend for their support on these birds
and their eggs, which are taken in amazing quantities, and are the
principal articles of their food. From the nests placed upon the ground
the eggs are easily picked up one after another, in great numbers, as
fast as they are laid; but in robbing the nests built in the precipices,
chiefly for the sake of the birds, the business wears a very different
aspect: there, before the dearly earned booty can be secured, the
adventurous fowler, trained to it from his youth, and familiarised to
the danger, must first approach the brow of the fearful precipice, to
view and to trace his progress on the broken pendent rocks beneath him:
over these rocks, which (perhaps a hundred fathoms lower) are dashed by
the foaming surge, he is from a prodigious height about to be suspended.
After addressing himself in prayer to the Supreme Disposer of events,
with a mind prepared for the arduous task, he is let down by a rope,
either held fast by his comrades, or fixed into the ground on the
summit, with his single cord, his pole-net, his pole-hook, &c.; and thus
equipped, he is enabled, in his progress, either to stop, to ascend or
descend, as he sees occasion. Sometimes by swinging himself from one
ledge to another, with the help of his hook, he mounts upwards, and
clambers from place to place; and, at other opportunities, by springing
backwards, he can dart himself into the hollow caverns of the projecting
rock, which he commonly finds well stored with the objects of his
pursuit, whence the plunder, chiefly consisting of the full-grown young
birds, is drawn up to the top, or tossed down to the boat at the bottom,
according to the situation, or concurring circumstances of time and
place. In these hollows he takes his rest, and sometimes remains during
the night, especially when they happen to be at such vast and stupendous
heights. To others of less magnitude the fowlers commonly climb from the
bottom, with the help of their hooked poles only, by which they assist,
and push or pull up each other from hold to hold, and in this manner
traverse the whole front of the frightful scar. To a feeling mind the
very sight of this hazardous employment, in whatever way it is pursued,
is painful; for, indeed, it often happens that these adventurous poor
men, in this life-taking mode of obtaining their living, slip their
hold, are precipitated from one projection to another, with increasing
velocity, and fall mangled upon the rocks, or are for ever buried in the
abyss beneath.
* * * * *
The sailors sometimes catch these birds by fastening a fresh herring on
a floating plank, against which the gannet’s neck is broken, when
furiously pouncing on his prey.—_Bewick_—_Martin._