An adult Gannet in the foreground is shown against a background of a noisy breeding colony with dark young birds among the lighter adults. In spring gannets were found in many thousands on the rocks off the coasts of Scotland and on the Bass Rock and islands of St. Kilda and Ailsa Craig. The females lay a single dull white egg in a shallow nest composed of grass and seaweed.

DISTRIBUTION: Oceanic. Breeds on both sides of the North Atlantic, with races (seperate species?) in South Africa and southwest Australia and New Zealand. In Britain considerable increase in number of breeding colonies and in population since early part of this century