Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/81

nest is a shallow depression, either on the ground itself or on a pile of turf, grass, and seaweed—which last is often conveyed from a great distance. The single egg it contains has a white shell of the same chalky character as a Cormorant’s (vol. vi. p. 407). The young are hatched blind and naked, but the slate-coloured skin with which their body is covered is soon clothed with white down, replaced in due time by true feathers of the dark colour already mentioned. The mature plumage is believed not to be attained for some three years. Towards the end of summer the majority of Gannets, both old and young, leave the neighbourhood of their breeding-place, and, betaking themselves to the open sea, follow the shoals of herriiigs and other fishes (the presence of which they are most useful in indicating to fishermen) to a great distance from land. Their prey is almost invariably captured by plunging upon it from_ a height, and ‘a company of Gannets fishing presents a curious and interesting spectacle. Flying in a line, each bird, when it comes over the shoal, closes its wings and dashes per- pendicularly into the waves, whence it emerges after a few seconds, and, shaking the water from its feathers, mounts in a wide curve, and orderly takes its place in the rear of the string’, to repeat its headlong plunge so soon as it again finds itself above its prey.^[1]

Gannet, or Solan Goose.

Structurally the Gannet presents many points worthy of note, such as its closed nostrils, its aborted tongue, and its toes all connected by a web—characters which it pos- sesses in common with most of the other members of the group of birds (Ste_r/cmopodes) to which it belongs. But more remarkable still is the system of subcutaneous air-cells, some of large size, pervading almost the whole surface of the body, communicating with the lungs, and capable of being inflated or emptied at the will of the bird. This peculiarity has attracted the attention of several writers— Montagu, Professor Owen (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1831, p. 90), and Macgillivray; but a full and particular account of the anatomy of the Ganiiet is still to be desired.

In the southern hemisphere the Gannet is represented by two nearly allied but somewhat smaller forins—one, Sula. capensis, inhabiting the coast of South Africa, and the other, S. ser-rator, the Australian seas. Both much resemble the northern bird, but the former seems to have a perman- ently black tail, and the latter a tail the four middle feathers of which are blackish—brown with white shafts.

Apparently inseparable from the Gannets generically are the smaller birds well known to sailors as Boobies from the extraordinary stupidity they commonly display. They differ, however, in having no median stripe of bare skin down the front of the throat; they almost invariably breed upon trees, and are inhabitants of warmer climates. One of them, S. c_7/(mops, when adult has much of the aspect of a Gannet, but S. piscator is readily distinguishable by its red legs, and S. leucogaste-r by its upper plumage and neck of deep brown. These three are widely distributed within the tropics, and are in some places exceedingly abundant. The fourth, S. ea-rie_r;at((, which seems to preserve through- out its life the spotted suit characteristic of the immature S. bassana, has a much more limited range, being as yet only known from the coast of Peru, where it is one of the birds which. contribute to the formation of guano.

(a. n.)

GANS, Edward (1798–1839), a distinguished jurist,

was born at Berlin, on the 22d March 1798. His father, a banker in Berlin, was of Jewish descent. He was educated first at Berlin, then at Giittingen, and finally at Heidelberg, where he met Thibaut, the celebrated lawyer, and Hegel, by whom he was much attracted. He attended Hegel’s lectures at Berlin and became thoroughly imbued with the principles of the Hegelian philosophy. In 1825 he travelled for some months in England and France, and on his return was named professor extraordinarius at Berlin. At this period the historical school of jurisprudence was coming to the front, and Gans, already, from his Hegelian tendencies, predisposed to treat law historically, applied the method to one special branch of legal relatio1is—the right of succession. His great work, E=rbrecIzt in '£U€lf‘(/€SC}L2'C]ll'l'?:C]£€7L E-ntwic/rlmzg (4 vols. 1825, 1825, 1829, and 1835), is still of permanent value, not only on account of its extensive survey of facts, but through the admirable manner in which the general theory of the slow evolution of legal relations is presented. In 1830, and again in 1835, Gans visited Paris, and formed an intimate acquaintance with the knot of brilliant Writers and lecturers, Cousin, Villemain, Michelet, and Quinet, who then made Paris the centre of literary culture and criticism. The liberality of his views, especially on political matters, drew upon Gans the displeasure of the Prussian Government, and in 1835 his course of lectures 011 the history of the last fifty years, afterwards published (l'o7'leszm_r/en fiber (I. Geschiclzte (I. lctzten _fz'i7;fz2'_q Ja/ire), was proliibitecl. He died at Berlin in 1839. In addition to the w0rks_above mentioned, there may be noted the treatise on the right. of possession (Ueber die G-rzmdlage des Besz'tze.s, 1829). 3 Porno" of a systematic work on the Roman civil law _(S_z/stem d(_r Ii’6miscImL C'ivil-rechts, 1827), and a c0lleCtl011 Of 1113

miscellaneous writings (l'ermz°scIzte Sc}:-rI_'ften, 1832). Galls

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1. The large number of Gaimets, and the vast quantity of fish they takenlias been frequently animadverted upon, but the computations on this last point are perhaps fallaciens. It seems to be certain that in former days fislies, and herrings in particular, were at least as plentiful as now, if not more so, notwithstanding that Gannets were more numerous. Th-ose frequenting the Bass were reckoned by Mac- gillivrziy at 20,000 in 1831, while in 1869 they were coiiipnted at 11000. Showing a decrease of two-fifths in 38 years. On Ailsa in 1809 there were supposed to be as many as on the Bass, but their Iiiviiiilier was estimated ft 10,000 in 1877 (Report on the IIcr7'in_r] 1'13/l"_7‘U'S of Scotlaml, 1818, pp. xxv. and 17l),—being a diminution of oiie—sixth in eight years, or nearly twice as great as on the Bass.