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 Moreover, the specific topics and readings within the chapters use
students’ own knowledge of popular culture as a springboard to deeper
analysis. For example, Chapter 2, “How We Watch and Listen,” covers
several types of seeing and hearing, making connections between what it
means to watch and be watched, to listen and to be heard. Students are
asked to draw on what they know about such diverse topics as professional
football, physical disabilities, and podcasts as a first step in considering
broader questions of how this knowledge might connect to the culture at
large.
Students today are highly culturally attuned. They are surrounded by
marketing and are adept at paying attention to huge streams of competing
cultural data. In order to help them translate these native skills to the
college classroom, the fourth edition of Acting Out Culture provides
extensive support for doing critical analysis in academic work. The
Introduction, “How We Read and Write About Culture (and How We
Ought To),” gives students a brief crash course in the vocabulary of
cultural analysis with extended, real-life examples, offers a framework that
models the process of critical reading, and provides an annotated
professional essay that walks students step-by-step through performing
cultural analysis. In addition, a complete student essay in MLA format in
the Introduction makes it easier for students to see how to integrate
cultural analysis into academic writing.

WHY THESE READINGS?

Because they are exceptional models of writing and thinking by
contemporary writers who have important things to say about issues
students care about. Each chapter includes longer pieces that support
sustained reading and model in-depth critical analysis, as well as more
popular pieces that go beyond trend spotting to tackle the question “How
does America tick?” — with often surprising conclusions. The writers
include academics such as Michael Eric Dyson (writing on the perception
of African American patriotism), journalists such as Barbara Ehrenreich
(who exposes the ways in which the American poor are victimized), and
activists such as Bryan Stevenson (who calls for a wholesale reevaluation
of our criminal justice system). Although the readings approach the book’s
main themes from different angles, the overall focus on making and
breaking the sometimes unspoken rules that govern our everyday lives
creates a dialogue that will challenge students’ critical thinking skills.

8
WHY THESE FEATURES IN EACH CHAPTER?
Because they introduce a variety of approaches to thinking and writing
about cultural norms and rules. To analyze culture, students need to notice
what they often overlook or take for granted. For this reason, each chapter
opens with a multimedia example (e.g., image, website, infographic,
public service announcement) depicting the sort of cultural norm that often
flies beneath students’ radar. Calling out these norms for inspection and
analysis, each chapter opener presents students with a set of prompts
asking them to analyze and evaluate the key messages being promoted.
Another recurring feature that makes the often-invisible visible is “What
is normal?” which appears in the margins of the chapter introductions.
These callouts list common rules that reflect conventional wisdom and
invite students to move what’s in the margins of their awareness to front
and center, the better to unpack and examine the assumptions nested in the
norms. Opportunities to conduct this kind of analysis recur throughout the
book, as students are regularly invited to engage with and respond to a
range of pop culture texts — from web pages to advertisements, television
to news photos — as conductors of cultural messages.
Students also need to see that thinking critically about culture can
serve as a powerful tool for rethinking and rewriting prevailing social
scripts. Therefore, each chapter includes a box entitled Rewriting the
Script, which showcases a particular effort to push back against
conventional thinking on a current cultural issue. By looking at
contradictions within the organic food industry or reconsidering the
growing efforts to vocationalize public education, students learn first-hand
some of the strategies cultural actors use to rethink and revise the
instructions by which we are taught to think, talk, and act. Furthermore, by
inviting them to write about these strategies, this feature also encourages
students to engage in this process of cultural reflection and revision
themselves.
The images in Then and Now depict popular thinking from the past to
the present. Students can compare and contrast the images, but they can
also use the accompanying contextual information to think further about
what hasn’t changed over time. In the “How We Believe” chapter, for
example, a news photo of a Cold War–era duck-and-cover air raid drill is
paired with a recent news photo showing bottles of shampoo and
mouthwash being confiscated at the airport. Students are asked to consider,
then and now, “What’s more important? To feel safe or to be safe?” Do the
images suggest similarly futile responses to overwhelming perils? If not,
why not? If so, what are some alternatives?

9
 Scenes and Un-Scenes track cultural norms in visual media by
juxtaposing images on a central topic. These topics range from patriotic
symbols in political speeches to the importance of victory as an American
ideal. Students are encouraged to see the images as texts, composed to
persuade audiences to interpret the world in a certain way. Discussion and
writing prompts then direct students to think about how visual media
portray, navigate, and reframe social rules and norms. What’s in the
pictures, and what’s been left out?

WHY THESE WRITING ASSIGNMENTS?

Because writing is the best way for students to harness their own thinking
and take control of what the culture wants them to believe. Writing is one
of the most powerful tools we have for participating as active members of
society, and the assignments in Acting Out Culture help students get a grip
on the issues and construct sturdy arguments for action and change. After
reading each selection, students are asked to identify the norms the piece
addresses, think critically about the issues at hand, and take a stand on
these topics by analyzing a writer’s argument, examining the point of
view, or evaluating the effectiveness of the language.
In particular, the Acting Like a Citizen assignment puts students in
the driver’s seat, asking them to explore the ways rules and norms affect
actual people living in real communities, and to consider what actions
might be taken in response. Often rooted in field research, these
assignments urge students to also consider the social and civic
consequences that arguments can have by more deeply examining the
ways the issues in a chapter play out within their own communities and
their own personal lives. For example, in the “How We Work” chapter,
students are asked to research mean salaries for a range of jobs and write
about why we value different types of work in different ways, using what
they’ve discovered by reading the chapter selections to consider how we
might act to change these particular social scripts.
Comparing Arguments, the discussion/writing prompt that
accompanies each selection in every chapter, encourages students to think
about two essays in relation to one another, assessing the different but
complementary ways they address an issue or question related to the
broader chapter theme. Putting two writers within a given chapter into
dialogue, these prompts challenge students to compare the ways different
writers argue about such issues as poverty, consumerism, or the
relationship between education and work.

10
WHAT’S NEW IN THE FOURTH EDITION?
Because American culture evolves at such a rapid pace, there are thirty-
five new readings about current and relevant issues. More than half of
the reading selections are new, featuring up-and-coming and established
voices that think through and challenge established rules and norms,
whether these are online, on television, at the dinner table, or at the cash
register. The new readings feature the brightest writers, educators,
journalists, and activists who challenge our thinking on the issues that
matter in America today. From Rebecca Traister’s sharp-eyed analysis of
our culture’s evolving marriage norms, to Steve Almond’s anguished
meditation on the ethics of watching professional football, to Mac
McClelland’s journey into the dark world of warehouse fulfillment centers,
each new reading addresses issues students encounter as they move
through every role they play in life.
Whether through writing or social interaction, social norms play a
formative role in shaping how we view and define ourselves. A new
chapter, “How We Identify,” takes up just this question, exploring our
complex relationship with the public roles we choose, and the norms that
underlie them. Are we, this chapter asks, defined by the roles we play?
What does it mean to identify with the social norms such roles reflect? By
inviting students to consider these questions, “How We Identify”
reinforces Acting Out Culture’s overall belief that writing and action give
students the power to change not only their world but also themselves. The
chapter addresses the theme of “identification” from a variety of vantages,
covering topics as timely and engaging as transgender identity, sexuality
on the web, and the threats to black bodies in public space.

SUPPORT FOR INSTRUCTORS AND STUDENTS

At Bedford/St. Martin’s, providing support to teachers and their students
who use our books and digital tools is our top priority. The Bedford/St.
Martin’s English Community is now our home for professional resources,
including Bedford Bits, our popular blog with new ideas for the
composition classroom. Join us to connect with our authors and your
colleagues at community.macmillan.com where you can download titles
from our professional resource series, review projects in the pipeline, sign
up for webinars, or start a discussion.
In addition to this dynamic online community and book-specific
instructor resources, we offer digital tools, custom solutions, and value
packages to support both you and your students. We are committed to

11
delivering the quality and value that you’ve come to expect from
Bedford/St. Martin’s, supported as always by the power of Macmillan
Learning. To learn more about or to order any of the following products,
contact your Bedford/St. Martin’s sales representative or visit the website
at macmillanlearning.com.
SELECT VALUE PACKAGES
Add value to your text by packaging one of the following resources with
Acting Out Culture. To learn more about package options for any of the
following products, contact your Bedford/St. Martin’s sales representative
or visit macmillanlearning.com.
Writer’s Help 2.0 is a powerful online writing resource that helps students
find answers whether they are searching for writing advice on their own or
as part of an assignment.
Smart search. Built on research with more than 1,600 student
writers, the smart search in Writer’s Help provides reliable results
even when students use novice terms, such as flow and unstuck.
Trusted content from our best-selling handbooks. Choose Writer’s
Help 2.0, Hacker Version, or Writer’s Help 2.0, Lunsford Version, to
ensure that students have clear advice and examples for all of their
writing questions.
Diagnostics that help establish a baseline for instruction. Assign
diagnostics to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement on
topics related to grammar and reading and to help students plan a
course of study. Use visual reports to track performance by topic,
class, and student as well as comparison reports that track
improvement over time.
Adaptive exercises that engage students. Writer’s Help 2.0 includes
LearningCurve, gamelike online quizzing that adapts to what students
already know and helps them focus on what they need to learn.
Writer’s Help 2.0 can be packaged with Acting Out Culture at a significant
discount. For more information, contact your sales representative or visit
macmillanlearning.com/writershelp2.
LaunchPad Solo for Readers and Writers allows students to work on
whatever they need help with the most. At home or in class, students learn
at their own pace, with instruction tailored to each student’s unique needs.
LaunchPad Solo for Readers and Writers features
pre-built units that support a learning arc. Each easy-to-assign

12
 unit consists of a pretest check, multimedia instruction and
assessment, and a posttest that assesses what students have learned
about critical reading, writing process, using sources, grammar, style,
and mechanics. Dedicated units also offer help for multilingual
writers.
diagnostics that help establish a baseline for instruction. Assign
diagnostics to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement on
topics related to grammar and reading and to help students plan a
course of study. Use visual reports to track performance by topic,
class, and student, as well as comparison reports to track
improvement over time.
a video introduction to many topics. Introductions offer an
overview of the unit’s topic, and many include a brief, accessible
video to illustrate the concepts at hand.
twenty-five reading selections with comprehension quizzes.
Assign a range of classic and contemporary essays each of which
includes a label indicating Lexile level to help you scaffold
instruction in critical reading.
adaptive quizzing for targeted learning. Most units include
Learning-Curve, gamelike adaptive quizzing that focuses on the areas
in which each student needs the most help.
the ability to monitor student progress. Use our gradebook to see
which students are on track and which need additional help with
specific topics.
Students who rent or buy a used book can purchase access and instructors
may request free access at macmillanlearning.com/readwrite.
MACMILLAN LEARNING CURRICULUM SOLUTIONS
Curriculum Solutions brings together the quality of Bedford/St. Martin’s
content with Hayden-McNeil’s expertise in publishing original custom
print and digital products. Developed especially for writing courses, our
ForeWords for English program contains a library of the most popular,
requested content in easy-to-use modules to help you build the best
possible text. Whether you are considering creating a custom version of
Acting Out Culture or incorporating our content with your own, we can
adapt and combine the resources that work best for your course or
program. Some enrollment minimums apply. Contact your sales
representative for more information.

13
INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
You have a lot to do in your course. Bedford/St. Martin’s wants to make it
easy for you to find the support you need — and to get it quickly.
The Instructor’s Manual for Acting Out Culture is available as a PDF
that can be downloaded from macmillanlearning.com. Visit the instructor
resources tab for Acting Out Culture. In addition to chapter overviews and
teaching tips, the instructor’s manual includes sample syllabi and
classroom activities.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As befits its focus on “acting,” this book owes its existence to the
contributions of a truly ensemble cast. First of all, I would like to thank
Alanya Harter and Leasa Burton, whose early insights and guidance
several years ago helped get this project off the ground. Thanks as well to
Joan Feinberg, Denise Wydra, Karen Henry, Steve Scipione, Adam
Whitehurst, and Jane Carter, whose combined wealth of experience and
ideas added immeasurable depth and purpose to the book.
Once again, I’d like to extend my thanks to the countless students and
instructors intrepid enough to have taken a chance on a new cultural
studies reader. The anecdotes, reflections, and suggestions I have received
over the last three years provided me with exactly the right foundation for
thinking about what this book really needs to be. In particular, I would like
to single out the contributions of my own students at University of
Wisconsin–Whitewater, who never stinted in offering candid and
constructive feedback about both what did and did not work. Thank you to
the following instructors for their valuable input on the fourth edition:
Craig Bartholomaus, Metropolitan Community College–Penn Valley
Tamara Ponzo Brattoli, Joliet Junior College
Krista Callahan-Caudill, University of Kentucky
Kyndra Campbell, Gallatin College
Cornelius FitzPatrick, Colorado State University
Jacquelyn Geiger, Bucks County Community College
Deena Lynk, Carteret Community College
Carole Mackie, California State University, Fullerton
Paul Nagy, Clovis Community College
Stacey Parham, Judson College
Thomas Pfister, Idaho State University
This book would never have made it past manuscript without the
careful work of Managing Editor Michael Granger, Manager of Publisher

14
Services Andrea Cava, and Content Project Manager Lidia MacDonald-
Carr. And there’d be very little in it without Kalina Ingham and Mark
Schaefer to hammer out the text permissions and without Martha Friedman
and Candice Cheesman applying their expert research skills to the visuals.
Of course Acting Out Culture would never have rounded the corner
into a fourth edition were it not for the stalwart efforts of my editor, Jill
Gallagher. Jill brought a degree of insight and enthusiasm to this project
that reinvigorated this book precisely when it was needed most. Also, my
gratitude to associate editor Lexi DeConti. My heartfelt thanks to you
both. Additionally, thanks are due to Vice President of Editorial,
Humanities, Edwin Hill; Program Manager John Sullivan; and Executive
Marketing Manager Joy Fisher Williams. My continuing affection and
gratitude, as well, go to the gang at EVP Coffee in Madison. When you’re
lucky enough to have discovered the perfect place for writing a book, why
mess with a good thing? And finally, to Emily Hall, whose belief in and
support for this project continues to make it all possible. My love and
thanks.

15
Contents
Preface for Instructors

Introduction:
How We Read and Write about Culture (and How We
Ought To)
These Are the Rules
Norms, Scripts, Roles, Rules: Analyzing Popular Culture
How Culture Shapes Us: Rules of the Road
The World in Words
Guided Reading: Anne Trubek’s “Stop Teaching Handwriting” [annotated
essay]
A Student’s Response to Trubek: Jordan Radziecki, “Don’t Erase
Handwriting” [student essay]
Reading Multimodal Texts
Making Yourself Heard

1 How We Believe:
In What Way Does What We Know Shape Our Daily
Actions?
Introduction
MICHAEL SANDEL, Markets and Morals
“Paying kids to read books might get them to read more, but also
teach them to regard reading as a chore rather than a source of
intrinsic satisfaction.”
ANDI ZEISLER, The Corridors of Empower
“[T]here’s a vast difference between using the language of
empowerment to suggest that being able to choose between three
different kinds of diet frozen pizza is a radical accomplishment and
helping to create a world where diet frozen pizza isn’t something
that needs to exist in the first place.”
REWRITING THE SCRIPT: Buy Nothing Christmas
This feature investigates our modern consumerist culture through the

16
 lens of “Buy Nothing Christmas.”
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, Understanding Black Patriotism
“Black love of country is often far more robust and complicated than
the lapel-pin nationalism some citizens swear by.”
DEBRA J. DICKERSON, The Great White Way
“Hopefully, with time, more Americans will come to accept that race
is an arbitrary system for establishing hierarchy and privilege, good
for little more than doling out the world’s loot and deciding who gets
to kick whose butt and then write epic verse about it.”
THEN AND NOW: Feeling (In)Secure
This feature questions our notion of what it means to be safe in the
past Cold War era and in our current, post-9/11 world.
BRYAN STEVENSON, Higher Ground
“Proximity to the condemned and incarcerated made the question of
each person’s humanity more urgent and meaningful, including my
own.”
AMITAVA KUMAR, The Restoration of Faith
“The significance of restorative justice [lies] in ‘community-based
processes that hold people who harm directly accountable to the
people that they’ve harmed.’ ”
NAOMI KLEIN, One Way or Another, Everything Changes
“Climate change has never received the crisis treatment from our
leaders, despite the fact that it carries the risk of destroying lives on a
vastly greater scale than collapsed banks or collapsed buildings.”
TOM JACOBS, It’s Not Easy Being Green — and Manly
“Taking the bus, eating less meat, even turning down the thermostat
can conflict with traditionally masculine notions of power and self-
reliance.”
SCENES AND UN-SCENES: Political Protest
This feature questions the way we see political protests and rallies,
from the civil rights movement of the 1960s to Occupy Wall Street
and the Black Lives Matter movement.
ACTING LIKE A CITIZEN: Re-Scripting Belief

2 How We Watch and Listen:

Does What We See and Hear Depend on How We’re

17
Looking and Listening?
Introduction
HARRIET MCBRYDE JOHNSON, Unspeakable Conversations
“It’s not that I’m ugly. It’s more that most people don’t know how to
look at me. The sight of me is routinely discombobulating. The
power wheelchair is enough to inspire gawking, but that’s the least
of it.”
LINDY WEST, Bones
“Please don’t forget: I am my body. When my body gets smaller, it
is still me. When my body gets bigger, it is still me. There is not a
thin woman inside me, awaiting excavation. I am one piece.”
REWRITING THE SCRIPT: Reality Television
This feature asks just how much of reality television is real and how
much is a calculated bid for fame.
HEATHER HAVRILESKY, Some “Girls” Are Better Than Others
“This discord between how vehemently we’re told to believe in
ourselves as young girls and how dismissively we’re treated as
young women … is part of what fuels the shudder brought on by that
word, ‘girl.’ ”
STEVE ALMOND, Is It Immoral to Watch the Super Bowl?
“The civilian and the fan participate in the same basic transaction.
We offload the mortal burdens of combat, mostly to young men from
the underclass, whom we send off to battle with cheers and largely
ignore when they wind up wounded.”
AMANDA HESS, Why Old Men Find Young Women’s Voices So Annoying
“As women gain status and power in the professional world, young
women may not be forced to carefully modify totally benign aspects
of their behavior in order to be heard.”
TIFFANIE WEN, Inside the Podcast Brain: Why Do Audio Stories
Captivate?
“Our brain is trying to save resources and energy and having this
arousal response is costly. Therefore we only want to give attention
to something when it matters, when there’s something going on.”
THEN AND NOW: Wearing Your Identity on Your Sleeve
Using visuals from yesterday and today, this feature examines the
concept of personal style — does what we wear reflect who we are?
TOM VANDERBILT, How Predictable Is Our Taste?

18
 “Being a snob could actually be socially counterproductive,
lessening one’s ability to move across different social networks.”
KEVIN FALLON, Why We Binge-Watch Television
“According to a new study by Harris Interactive on behalf of Netflix,
61 percent of us binge-watch TV regularly, which is to say that we
watch at least 2–3 episodes of a single series in one sitting.”
SCENES AND UN-SCENES: Picturing Climate Change
This feature untangles the images and perceptions surrounding the
debate around climate change, encouraging students to think about
the messages the media is sending about global warming and other
environmental crises.
ACTING LIKE A CITIZEN: Keeping an Eye Out

3 How We Eat:
Which Rules Dictate the Foods We Put in Our Bodies?
Introduction
KIM BOSCH, The Things We Eat Alone
“In a society that continuously scolds and infantilizes women for
their eating habits — not unlike a child caught with their hand in the
cookie jar — what then is the value, if any, of women choosing to
eat poorly and in secret?”
SOPHIE EGAN, Having It Our Way
“Americans are hardwired to personalize and individualize our
eating experiences. Customization, it seems, is our birthright.”
REWRITING THE SCRIPT: Organic Food
Renowned food activist Michael Pollan challenges what he calls
“Big Organic,” calling out the industrialization of the organic food
movement. Students must think about the ways foods are presented
to them as consumers and what those presentations mean.
NICHOLAS KRISTOF, Prudence or Cruelty?
“When members of Congress debate whether to slash the food stamp
program, they should ask if they really want more small children
arriving at school having skipped breakfast.”
NATHANAEL JOHNSON, Is There a Moral Case for Eating Meat?
“The arguments against eating animals are pretty convincing. But
surely, I thought, there were also intellectuals making convincing
counterarguments. Right? Nope. Not really.”

19
 FRANCINE PROSE, The Wages of Sin
“What’s slightly more disturbing is the notion that not only do fat
people need to be monitored, controlled, and saved from their
gluttonous impulses, but that we need to be saved from them—that
certain forms of social control might be required to help the
overweight resist temptation.”
HARRIET BROWN, How My Life Changed with One Sentence
“We’re in the midst of an epidemic, one that’s destroying both the
quality and the longevity of our lives…. I’m not talking about
overweight or obesity. I’m talking about our obsession with weight,
our never-ending quest for thinness, our relentless angst about our
bodies.”
THEN AND NOW: How to Make Meatloaf
Comparing a 1956 Heinz meatloaf recipe with a 2001 tofu meatloaf
recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant, students are encouraged to
think about how the ways we prepare and eat meals have evolved
over the years.
LILY WONG, Eating the Hyphen
“Yes, that is what I said: I need a fork, a knife, a pair of chopsticks,
and ketchup to eat my dumplings.”
BRENDAN BUHLER, On Eating Roadkill
“Practical, culinary, and even legal considerations make it hard for
many to imagine cooking our vehicular accidents, but that needn’t be
the case. If the roadkill is fresh, perhaps hit on a cold day and ideally
a large animal, it is as safe as any game.”
SCENES AND UN-SCENES: Giving Thanks
Various visual representations of the Thanksgiving meal, from
Norman Rockwell to modern television, placed side-by-side
challenge students to examine their own conceptions of
Thanksgiving.
ACTING LIKE A CITIZEN: Consumer Profiling

4 How We Learn:
What Kinds of Knowledge Are Most Valuable? How
Are We Supposed to Go About Acquiring Such
Knowledge?
Introduction

20
ALFIE KOHN, From Degrading to De-Grading
“In my experience, the most impressive teachers are those who
despise the whole process of giving grades. Their aversion, as it
turns out, is supported by solid evidence that raises questions about
the very idea of traditional grading.”
KRISTINA RIZGA, Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is
Wrong
“Judging from what I’d read about ‘troubled’ schools, I’d expected
noisy classrooms, hallway fights, and disgruntled staff. Instead I
found a welcoming place that many students and staff call ‘family.’ ”
REWRITING THE SCRIPT: Job Skills in the Classroom
This feature asks, what is the true purpose of education? Is it to
prepare students for future jobs or to help them become critical
thinkers?
BELL HOOKS, Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class
“I learned that my inner life was more peaceful if I did not think
about money, or allow myself to indulge in any fantasy of desire. I
learned the art of sublimation and repression.”
JONATHAN KOZOL, Preparing Minds for Markets
“Starting in kindergarten, children in the school were being asked to
think about the jobs that they might choose when they grew up. The
posters that surrounded them made clear which kinds of jobs they
were expected to select.”
FRANK BRUNI, Why College Rankings Are a Joke
“The rankings elevate clout above learning, which isn’t as easily
measured.”
BEN CASSELMAN, Shut Up About Harvard
“Here’s the reality: Most students never have to write a college
entrance essay, pad a résumé or sweet-talk a potential letter-writer.”
THEN AND NOW: Encyclopedic Knowledge
This feature explores how our conception of knowledge has evolved
from print books to Wikipedia.
AARON HANLON, The Trigger Warning Myth
“Our national conversations about trigger warnings and political
correctness evince a troubling lack of awareness about what it
actually looks like in real life to express sensitivities to college
students about their apparently increasing anxieties and traumas.”

21
 FERENTZ LAFARGUE, Welcome to the “Real World”
“To be sure, the real world is full of anti-Semitism, homophobia,
sexism and racism. The question is: Do we prepare students to
accept the world as it is, or do we prepare them to change it?”
SCENES AND UN-SCENES: Looking at Learning
This portfolio showcases the ways in which where and how we learn
is changing, from a traditional classroom with a blackboard to
toddlers with iPads. What does this evolution mean for the future of
education?
ACTING LIKE A CITIZEN: Educational Scripts

5 How We Work:
What Do Our Jobs Say About Us?
Introduction
MATTHEW CRAWFORD, The Case for Working with Your Hands
“Working in an office, you often find it difficult to see any tangible
result from your efforts. What exactly have you accomplished at the
end of any given day?”
MAC MCCLELLAND, I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave
“ ‘Say you’ll do better, even if you know you can’t,’ she
continues…. ‘Say you’ll try harder, even if the truth is that you’re
trying your absolute hardest right now, no matter how many times
they tell you you’re not doing good enough.’ ”
REWRITING THE SCRIPT: Working at Wal-Mart
This feature considers the dichotomy between the advertised
atmospheres of the corporate retail workplace and the realities of
working in such an environment.
BARBARA EHRENREICH, How the Poor Are Made to Pay for Their
Poverty
“You might think that policymakers would take a keen interest in the
amounts that are stolen, coerced, or extorted from the poor, but there
are no official efforts to track such figures.”
LINDA TIRADO, You Get What You Pay For
“I know that a lot of people think that I’m supposed to be a good
little worker bee and do my part to help move the wheels of
capitalism. I just don’t see what’s in it for me anymore beyond my
little paycheck.”

22
 EMILY BADGER, What Happens When We All Become Our Own Bosses
“We’re witnessing the beginning … of a radical change in how
economic activity is organized where ‘the “crowd” replaces the
corporation at the center of capitalism.’ ”
CATHERINE RAMPELL, A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much
“The prevailing millennial attitude is that taking breaks for fun at
work makes people more, not less, productive. Likewise, they accept
that their work will bleed into evenings and weekends.”
THEN AND NOW: Dressing for Success
This feature explores exactly what projects the appearance of
success in today’s modern workplace as compared to the more rigid
strictures of the 1950s office.
MADDIE OATMAN, The Racist, Twisted History of Tipping
“The origin of the word is unclear — one theory says ‘tip’ is
shorthand for ‘to insure promptness’; another suggests it’s from
17th-century thief slang meaning ‘to give.’ ”
MIKE ROSE, Blue-Collar Brilliance
“If we believe everyday work to be mindless, then that will affect the
work we create in the future…. If we think that whole categories of
people — identified by class or occupation — are not that bright,
then we reinforce social separations and cripple our ability to talk
across cultural divides.”
SCENES AND UN-SCENES: A Woman’s Work
This feature challenges the stereotypes associated with women
workers, highlighting icons such as Rosie the Riveter and Nancy
Pelosi. It asks students to ponder the differences between men’s
work and women’s work, and further, why do these stereotypes
exist?
ACTING LIKE A CITIZEN: Working Hard or Hardly Working?

6 How We Connect:
What Forces Help — and Hinder — Our
Relationships with Others?
Introduction
NAVNEET ALANG, The Comfort of a Digital Confidante
“So much of human communication is wrapped up in this desire: our
inarticulate, inevitably futile wish to have another person understand

23
 us exactly as we understand ourselves. Alas, that person doesn’t
exist.”
MAE WISKIN, Can’t Quit the Clicks: The Rise of Social Media Rehab
“We often joke that we are ‘addicted’ to our phones, but imagine
becoming so devoted that you find yourself checking into rehab.”
REWRITING THE SCRIPT: Political Gridlock
How does the theme of connection come into play with politics?
Comments about political gridlock and its effects made by former
President Barack Obama challenge students to think critically about
current events and political issues.
BIJAN STEPHEN, Get Up, Stand Up: Social Media Helps Black Lives
Matter Fight the Power
“If you’re a civil rights activist [today] and you need to get some
news out, your first move is to choose a platform…. If you want to
mobilize a ton of people you might not know and you do want the
whole world to talk about it: Twitter.”
CAROLINE O’DONOVAN, Nextdoor Rolls Out Product Fix It Hopes Will
Stem Racial Profiling
“Nextdoor features a wide variety of post categories — Classifieds,
Events, etc. — but it’s the Crime and Safety section where people
tend to focus on race to the exclusion of other salient details.”
THEN AND NOW: Personal Shopping
From the Sears, Roebuck mail-order catalog to online retailers such
as eBay, shopping has undergone significant changes. Students are
asked to think about what these changes mean in terms of how
society consumes our goods.
SHERRY TURKLE, The Public Square
“I have felt for a long time, as a mother and as a citizen, that in a
democracy, we all need to begin with the assumption that everyone
has something to ‘hide,’ a zone of private action and reflection.”
CHARLES DUHIGG, How Companies Learn Your Secrets
“Target can buy data about your ethnicity, job history, the magazines
you read, if you’ve ever declared bankruptcy or got divorced, the
year you bought (or lost) your house, … what kinds of topics you
talk about online, whether you prefer certain brands of coffee, …
your political leanings, … charitable giving, and the number of cars
you own.”
SCENES AND UN-SCENES: “Hello, Neighbor”

24
 From gated communities to online social networks, this visual
feature invites students to think about their understanding of
neighbors and neighborhoods, and how that understanding has
shifted over the years.
PETER LOVENHEIM, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
“Did I live in a community or just in a house on a street surrounded
by people whose lives were entirely separate? Few of my neighbors,
I later learned, knew others on the street more than casually; many
didn’t know even the names of those a few doors down.”
MATTHEW DESMOND, Home and Hope
“America is supposed to be a place where you can better yourself,
your family, and your community. But this is only possible if you
have a stable home.”
ACTING LIKE A CITIZEN: Bridging the Divide

7 How We Identify:
Do the Roles We Play Reflect Who We Truly Are?
Introduction
SARAH MIRK, Tuning In: How a Generation is Schooling Itself on
Sexuality
“ ‘Figuring out how to continue the balancing act of who I feel I am
and who society tells me I should be has become harder and harder.’
”
THOMAS PAGE MCBEE, The Truck Stop
“[N]one of us can look at another and know what’s in his pants or
his heart, and that surprise is inevitable, but how you react to it is
who you are.”
REWRITING THE SCRIPT: Gender as Choice
Using pop culture as a lens, this feature challenges students to think
about gender’s changing role in shaping identity.
REBECCA TRAISTER, All the Single Ladies
“Young women today no longer have to wonder, as I did, what
unmarried adult life for women might look like, surrounded as we
are by examples of exactly this kind of existence.”
JODI KANTOR, Historic Day for Gays, but Twinge for Loss of Outsider
Culture
“[E]ven many who raced to the altar say they feel loss amid the

25
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
have slain.” Here Mr Godwin assured us that he had visited the
Gannet Rock ten seasons in succession, for the purpose just
mentioned, and added, that on one of these occasions, “six men had
destroyed five hundred and forty Gannets in about an hour, after
which the party rested a while, and until most of the living birds had
left their immediate neighbourhood, for all around them, beyond the
distance of about a hundred yards, thousands of Gannets were yet
sitting on their nests, and the air was filled with multitudes of others.
The dead birds are now roughly skinned, and the flesh of the breast
cut up in pieces of different sizes, which will keep good for bait about
a fortnight or three weeks. So great is the destruction of these birds
for the purpose mentioned, that the quantity of their flesh so
procured supplies with bait upwards of forty boats, which lie fishing
close to the Island of Brion each season. By the 20th of May the rock
is covered with birds on their nests and eggs, and about a month
afterwards the young are hatched. The earth is scratched by the
birds for a few inches deep, and the edges surrounded by sea-
weeds and other rubbish, to the height of eight or ten inches,
tolerably well matted together. Each female Gannet lays a single
egg, which is pure white, but not larger than a good-sized hen’s egg.
When the young are hatched, they are bluish-black, and for a
fortnight or more their skin is not unlike that of the common dog-fish.
They gradually become downy and white, and when five or six
weeks old look like great lumps of carded wool.”
I was well pleased with this plain statement of our pilot, as I had with
my glass observed the regularity of the lines of nests, and seen
many of the birds digging the earth with their strong bills, while
hundreds of them were carrying quantities of that long sea-weed
called Eel-grass, which they seem to bring from towards the
Magdalene Islands. While the Ripley lay to near the rock, thousands
of the Gannets constantly flew over our heads; and although I shot at
and brought several to the water, neither the reports nor the sight of
their dead companions seemed to make any impression on them.
On weighing several of the Gannets brought on board, I found them
to average rather more than seven pounds; but Mr Godwin assured
me that when the young birds are almost ready to fly, they weigh
eight and sometimes nine pounds. This I afterwards ascertained to
be true, and I account for the difference exhibited at this period by
the young birds, by the great profusion of food with which their
parents supply them, regardless in a great measure of their own
wants. The Pilot further told me that the stench on the summit of the
rock was insupportable, covered as it is during the breeding season,
and after the first visits of the fishermen, with the remains of
carcasses of old and young birds, broken and rotten eggs,
excrements, and multitudes of fishes. He added that the Gannets,
although cowardly birds, at times stand and await the approach of a
man, with open bill, and strike furious and dangerous blows. Let me
now, Reader, assure you that unless you had seen the sight
witnessed by my party and myself that day, you could not form a
correct idea of the impression it has to this moment left on my mind.
The extent of the southward migration of the Gannet, after it has
reared its young, is far greater perhaps than has hitherto been
supposed. I have frequently seen it on the Gulf of Mexico, in the
latter part of autumn and in winter; and a few were met with, in the
course of my last expedition, as far as the entrance of the Sabine
River into the Bay of Mexico. Being entirely a maritime species, it
never proceeds inland, unless forced by violent gales, which have
produced a few such instances in Nova Scotia and the State of
Maine, as well as the Floridas, where I saw one that had been found
dead in the woods two days after a furious hurricane. The greater
number of the birds of this species seen in these warm latitudes
during winter are young of that or the preceding year. My friend John
Bachman has informed me that during one of his visits to the Sea
Islands off the shores of South Carolina, on the 2d of July 1836, he
observed a flock of Gannets of from fifty to an hundred, all of the
colouring of the one in my plate, and which was a bird in its first
winter plumage. They were seen during several days on and about
Cole’s Island, at times on the sands, at others among the rolling
breakers. He also mentions having heard Mr Giles, an acquaintance
of his, who knows much about birds, say, that in the course of the
preceding summer he had seen a pair of Gannets going to, and
returning from, a nest in a tree! This is in accordance with the report
of Captain Napoleon Coste, who commanded the United States
Revenue Cutter, the Campbell, placed at my disposal during my visit
to the Texas, and who was Lieutenant as well as Pilot of the Marion.
He stated that he had found a breeding place on the coast of
Georgia, occupied by a flock of old, and therefore White Gannets,
the nests of all of which were placed upon trees. No one can be
greatly surprised at these reports, who knows, as I do, that the
Brown Gannet, Sula fusca, breeds both on trees and on dry elevated
sand bars. During winter months I have generally observed single
birds at some considerable distance from the shore out at sea,
sometimes indeed beyond what mariners call soundings, but rarely
young ones, they generally keeping much nearer to the shores, and
procuring their food in shallower water.
The flight of the Gannet is powerful, well sustained, and at times
extremely elegant. While travelling, whether in fine or foul weather,
they fly low over the surface of the water, flapping their wings thirty
or forty times in succession, in the manner of the Ibis and the Brown
Pelican, and then sailing about an equal distance, with the wings at
right angles to the body, and the neck extended forwards. But,
Reader, to judge of the elegance of this bird while on wing, I would
advise you to gaze on it from the deck of any of our packet ships,
when her commander has first communicated the joyful news that
you are less than three hundred miles from the nearest shore,
whether it be that of merry England or of my own beloved country.
You would then see the powerful fisher, on well-spread pinions, and
high over the water, glide silently along, surveying each swelling
wave below, and coursing with so much ease and buoyancy as to
tempt you to think that had you been furnished with equal powers of
flight, you might perform a journey of eighty or ninety miles without
the slightest fatigue in a single hour. But perhaps at the very moment
when these thoughts have crossed your mind, as they many times
have crossed mine on such occasions, they are suddenly checked
by the action of the bird, which, intent on filling its empty stomach,
and heedless of your fancies, plunges headlong through the air, with
the speed of a meteor, and instantaneously snatches the fish which
its keen sight had discovered from on high. Now perchance you may
see the snow-white bird sit buoyantly for a while on the bosom of its
beloved element, either munching its prey, or swallowing it at once.
Or perhaps, if disappointed in its attempt, you will see it rise by
continued flappings, shaking its tail sideways the while, and snugly
covering its broad webbed feet among the under coverts of that
useful rudder, after which it proceeds in a straight course, until its
wings being well supplied by the flowing air, it gradually ascends to
its former height, and commences its search anew.
In severe windy weather, I have seen the Gannet propelling itself
against the gale by sweeps of considerable extent, placing its body
almost sideways or obliquely, and thus alternately, in the manner of
Petrels and Guillemots; and I have thought that the bird then moved
with more velocity than at any other time, except when plunging after
its prey. Persons who have seen it while engaged in procuring food,
must, like myself, have been surprised when they have read in
books that Gannets “are never known to dive,” and yet are assured
that they “have been taken by a fish fastened to a board sunk to the
depth of two fathoms, in which case the neck has either been found
dislocated, or the bill firmly fixed in the wood.” With such statements
before him, one might think that his own vision had been defective,
had he not been careful to note down at once the result of his
observations. And as this is a matter of habit with me, I will offer you
mine, good Reader, not caring one jot for what has been said to you
before on the subject.
I have seen the Gannet plunge, and afterwards remain under the
surface of the water for at least one minute at a time. On one
occasion of this kind, I shot one just as it emerged, and which held a
fish firmly in its bill, and had two others half-way down its throat. This
has induced me to believe that it sometimes follows its prey in the
water, and seizes several fishes in succession. At other times I have
observed the Gannet plunge amidst a shoal of launces so as
scarcely to enter the water, and afterwards follow them, swimming,
or as it were running, on the water, with its wings extended upwards,
and striking to the right and left until it was satiated. While on the
Gulf of Mexico, I wounded a Gannet, which, on falling to the water,
swam so fast before the boat, that we rowed about a quarter of a
mile before we reached it, when it suddenly turned towards us,
opened its bill, as if intent on defending itself, but was killed with the
stroke of an oar by one of the sailors. When shot at without even
being touched, these birds often disgorge their food in the manner of
Vultures; and this they always do when wounded, if their stomach
and gullet happen to be full. Sometimes, after being wounded in the
wings, they will float and allow you to take them, without making any
attempt to escape. Nay, my young friend, George C. Shattuck, M.
D., of Boston, while with me at Labrador, caught one which he found
walking amongst a great number of Guillemots, on a low and rocky
island.
When they are on their favourite breeding rocks, and about to fly,
they elevate their head, throw it backward, open the bill, and emit a
loud prolonged cry, before launching themselves into the air, in doing
which they waddle a few paces with their wings partially extended.
After starting, their first motion is greatly inclined downwards, but
they, presently recover, and seem to support themselves with ease.
When they are twenty or thirty yards off, you observe them shaking
the tail sideways, and then hiding their feet among the under coverts
of the tail. At other times they suddenly open their feet, moving them
as if for the purpose of grasping some object below, in the same
manner as some hawks, but only for a few moments, when again the
tail is shaken, and the feet hidden as before. They beat their wings
and sail alternately, even when flying around their breeding places.
On the ground the movements of the Gannet are exceedingly
awkward, and it marches with hampered steps, assisting itself with
the wings, or keeping them partially open, to prevent its falling. Their
walk, indeed, is merely a hobble. When the sun shines, they are fond
of opening their wings and beating them in the manner of
Cormorants, shaking the head meanwhile rather violently, and
emitting their usual uncouth guttural notes of cara, karew, karow.
You may well imagine the effect of a concert performed by all the
Gannets congregated for the purpose of breeding on such a rock as
that in the Gulf of St Lawrence, where, amidst the uproar produced
by the repetition of these notes, you now and then distinguish the
loud and continued wolfish howling-like sounds of those about to fly
off.
The newly-finished nest of this bird is fully two feet high, and quite as
broad externally. It is composed of seaweeds and maritime grasses,
the former being at times brought from considerable distances. Thus,
the Gannets breeding on the rocks in the Gulf of St Lawrence, carry
weeds from the Magdalene Islands, which are about thirty miles
distant. The grasses are pulled or dug up from the surface of the
breeding place itself, often in great clods consisting of roots and
earth, and leaving holes not unlike the entrances to the burrows of
the Puffin. The nests, like those of Cormorants, are enlarged or
repaired annually. The single egg, of a rather elongated oval form,
averages three inches and one-twelfth in length, by two inches in its
greatest breadth, and is covered with an irregular roughish coating of
white calcareous matter, which on being scraped off, leaves exposed
the pale greenish-blue tint of the under layer.
The birds usually reach the rock when already paired, in files often of
hundreds, and are soon seen billing in the manner of Cormorants,
and copulating on the rocks, but never, like the birds just mentioned,
on the water, as some have supposed. The period of their arrival at
their breeding grounds appears to depend much on the latitude of
the place; for, on the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, which I had the
pleasure of visiting in the agreeable company of my learned friend
William Macgillivray and his son, on the 19th of August 1835, the
Gannets are first seen in February, whereas in the Gulf of St
Lawrence they rarely reach the Great Rock until the middle of April
or beginning of May; and at Chateau Beau in the Straits of Belle Isle,
not until a fortnight or three weeks later. Like the members of most
large communities, the Gannets, though so truly gregarious at this
season, shew a considerable degree of animosity towards their more
immediate neighbours as soon as incubation commences. A lazy
bird perhaps, finding it easier to rob the nest of its friend of weeds
and sods, than to convey them from some distant place, seizes
some, on which the other resents the injury, and some well-directed
thrusts of their strong bills are made, in open day and in full view of
the assembled sitters, who rarely fail to look on with interest, and
pass the news from one to another, until all are apprized of the
quarrel. The time however passes on. The patient mother, to lend
more warmth to her only egg, plucks a few of the feathers from some
distance beneath her breast. In sunny weather, she expands those
of her upper parts, and passing her bill along their roots, destroys the
vile insects that lurk there. Should a boisterous gale or a thick cold
fog mar the beauty of the day, she gathers her apparel around her,
and shrinks deeper into her bed; and should it rain, she places her
body so as to prevent the inundation of her household. How happy,
Reader, must she be when now and then her keen eyes distinguish
in the crowd her affectionate mate, as he returns from the chase,
with loaded bill, and has already marked her among the thousand
beauties all equally anxious for the arrival of their lords! Now by her
side he alights as gently as is in his nature, presents her with a
welcome repast, talks perhaps cheeringly to her, and again opening
his broad wings departs in search of a shoal of herrings. At length,
the oval chest opens, and out crawls the tender young; but lo! the
little thing is black. What a strange contrast to the almost pure white
of the parent! Yet the mother loves it, with all the tenderness of other
mothers. She has anxiously expected its appearance, and at once
she nurses it with care; but so tender is it that she prefers waiting a
while before she feeds it. The time however soon comes, and with
exceeding care she provides some well macerated morsels which
she drops into its open mouth; so well prepared are they that there is
no instance on record of a Gannet, even of that tender age, having
suffered from dyspepsia or indigestion.
The male Gannet assists in incubating, though he sits less
assiduously than the female; and, on such occasions, the free bird
supplies the other with food. The sight of the young Gannet just after
birth might not please the eye of many, for it is then quite naked, and
of a deep bluish-black, much resembling a young Cormorant. Its
abdomen is extremely large, its neck thin, its head large, its eyes as
yet sightless, its wings but slightly developed. When you look at it
three weeks afterwards, it has grown much, and almost entirely
changed its colour, for, now, with the exception of certain parts of the
neck, the short thighs, and the belly, it is covered with yellowish soft
and thick down. In this state it looks perhaps as uncouth as at first,
but it grows so rapidly that at the end of three weeks more, you find
its downy coat patched with feathers in the most picturesque manner
imaginable. Looking around you, you observe that all the young are
not of the same growth; for all the Gannets do not lay on the same
day, and probably all the young are not equally supplied with food. At
this period, the great eyrie looks as if all its parts had become
common property; the nests, which were once well fashioned are
trampled down; the young birds stand everywhere or anywhere;
lazy-looking creatures they are, and with an appearance of non-
chalance which I have never observed in any other species of bird,
and which would lead you to think that they care as little about the
present as the future. Now the old birds are freed of part of their
cares, they drop such fish as they have obtained by the side of their
young, and, like Cormorants, Pelicans, or Herons, seldom bring a
supply oftener than once a-day. Strange to say, the young birds at
this period do not appear to pay the least attention to the old ones,
which occasionally alight near them, and drop fish for them to feed
upon.
Gannets do not feed, as some have supposed, and as many have
believed, on herring only; for I have found in their stomachs codlings
eight inches in length, as well as very large American mackerels,
which, by the way, are quite different from those so abundantly met
with on the coasts of Europe.
The young never leave the spot on which they have been reared
until they are well able to fly, when they separate from the old birds,
and do not rejoin them until at least a year after. Although I have in a
few instances found individuals yet patched with dark-grey spots,
and with most of their primary quills still black, I am confident that it
is not until the end of two years that they acquire their full plumage. I
have seen some with one wing almost pure black, and the tail of that
colour also; others with the tail only black; and several with pure
black feathers interspersed among the general white plumage.
I know of no other bird that has so few formidable enemies as the
Gannet. Not one of the species of Lestris with which I am
acquainted, ever attempts to molest it; and, although I have seen the
Frigate Pelican in quest of food within a short distance of it, I never
saw it offer injury. The insular rocks on which it breeds are of course
inaccessible to quadrupeds. The only animals, so far as I know, that
feed on the eggs or young, are the Larus marinus and Larus
glaucus. It is said that the Skua, Lestris Cataractes, sometimes
pursues the Gannets, but that species does not exist in North
America; and I am inclined to doubt the truth of this statement, for I
have never seen a Lestris of any kind attack a bird equal to itself in
size and strength.
Soon after the young Gannets are able to fly, all the birds of the
species leave the breeding place, and absent themselves until the
following season. While at Newfoundland, I was told that the English
and French fishermen who inhabit that country salt young Gannets
for winter provision, as is done in Scotland; but I saw none there. In
my estimation, the flesh of this bird is so bad that, as long as any
other can be procured, it ought to be rejected.
It is a curious fact, that the Gannets often procure mackerels or
herrings four or five weeks before the fishermen fall in with them on
our coast; but this is easily explained by their extensive wanderings.
Although this bird is easily kept in captivity, it is far from being a
pleasant pet. Its ordure is abundant, disagreeable to the eye as well
as the nose; its gait is awkward; and even its pale owl-like eyes glare
on you with an unpleasant expression. Add to this, the expense of its
food, and I can easily conceive that you will not give it a place in your
aviary, unless for the mere amusement of seeing it catch the food
thrown to it, which it does like a dog.
The feathers of the lower parts of the Gannet differ from those of
most other birds, in being extremely convex externally, which gives
the bird the appearance of being covered beneath with light shell-
work, exceedingly difficult to be represented in a drawing.
My highly esteemed and talented friend William Macgillivray
having given a full account of the habits of the Gannet, as observed
on the Bass Rock in Scotland, I here present it to you.
“The Bass is an abrupt rock, having a basis of about a mile in
circumference, and of an oblong form. The cliffs are perpendicular in
some places, overhanging in others, and everywhere precipitous,
excepting at the narrow extremity next the land, where, sloping less
abruptly, they form at the base a low projection, on which is the only
landing-place. Above this are the ruins of the fortifications and
houses, the Bass having formerly been used as a State-prison. The
rocks are in some places apparently two hundred feet in height, and
the summit, towards which the surface rises in an irregular manner,
is probably a hundred and fifty feet higher. In as far as I observed,
the whole mass is of a uniform structure, consisting of trap,
intermediate between greenstone and clinkstone, of a dull brownish-
red colour, and small granular structure. Although a great portion of
the upper surface of the island is composed of rock, there is an
abundant vegetation, consisting chiefly of Festuca ovina, F.
duriuscula, and a few other grasses, mixed with the plants usually
found in maritime situations.
“The circumstance connected with the Bass most interesting to the
Zoologist, is its being one of the few places in Britain to which the
Gannet resorts during the breeding season. The number which I saw
on the 13th May 1831, when I for the first time visited it along with
some friends, might be estimated at twenty thousand. Every part of
the mural faces of the rock, especially towards their summits, was
more or less covered by them. In one spot near the landing place,
about forty yards in circumference, and on a gentle slope of gravelly
ground, about three hundred individuals were sitting in peaceful
security on their nests.
“The Gannets arrive about the middle of February or the beginning of
March, and depart in October; some years a few individuals remain
during the winter. The nests are composed of grass and sea-weeds,
generally placed on the bare rock or earth, elevated in the form of a
truncated cone, of which the base is about twenty inches in diameter,
with a shallow terminal cavity. On the summit of the island are
numerous holes in the turf, from eight to fifteen inches deep, and
from six to nine broad, formed by the Gannets in pulling away grass
and turf for their nests. They are placed on all parts of the rocks
where a convenient spot occurs, but are much more numerous
towards the summit. Some of them on the face of the rock, or in a
shallow fissure, and which have been occupied for years, are piled
up to the height of from three to five feet, but in this case they always
lean against the rock. The egg, which is solitary, and presents
nothing remarkable in its position, is of an elongated oval form,
bluish-white, dull, with a chalky surface, usually patched with
yellowish-brown dirt. It is subjected to what might appear rough
usage, for the bird in alighting, flying off, or when disturbed by the
intrusion of human visitors, tosses it about, and often stands upon it.
“When sitting, the Gannets usually allow a person to approach within
three feet, sometimes much nearer, so that one may even touch
them. When one approaches them, they merely open their bill, and
utter their usual cry, or they rise and express some degree of
resentment, but seem to have very little apprehension of danger.
They take advantage of the absence of their neighbours to pilfer the
materials of their nests, frequently two join in this act, and
occasionally two may be seen tugging at the same bunch,
endeavouring to wrest it from each other. They are constantly
repairing their nests, which being composed in a great measure of
sea-weeds, shrink up in dry weather, and decompose in wet; and
when seated close together they have frequent quarrels. I saw one
seize its neighbour by the back of the neck, until the latter, I may say,
roared out; but in general, they are satisfied with menacing each
other with open bills and loud clamour. In leaving the nest, they
generally scatter about a quantity of the materials of which it is
composed, for they are extremely awkward in their motions when on
the ground, hobbling and limping along, aiding themselves with their
wings, and draggling the abdominal feathers and tail.
“In launching from the cliffs, they frequently utter a single plaintive
cry, perform a curve, having its concavity upwards, then shake the
tail, frequently the whole plumage, draw the feet backwards, placing
them close under the tail, on each side, and cover them with the
feathers. In some the feet were entirely covered, while in others
parts of the toes were apparent. In flying, the body, tail, neck, and
bill, are nearly in a straight line, the wings extended and never
brought close to the body, and they move by regular flappings,
alternating with short sailings. In alighting, they generally ascend in a
long curve, keeping their feet spread, and come down rather heavily,
often finding it difficult to balance themselves, and sometimes, when
the place is very steep, or when another bird attacks them, flying off,
to try it a second time. On the rocks they stand with the body nearly
horizontal, or they lie on their belly, although some may be seen in
an oblique or even nearly erect posture. They usually repose with
the head resting between the shoulders, the bill concealed among
the feathers of the back. I caught one in that state, by walking up to
it, and seizing it by the tail and the tips of the wings, which cross
each other over it.
“Owing to their interference with each other, a constant noise is kept
up amongst them. Their cry is hoarse and harsh, and may be
expressed by the syllables carra, carra, carra, or kirra, kirra, kirra, or
crac, crac, crac. The cry varies considerably in different individuals,
some having a sharper voice than others, and when unusually
irritated they repeat it with great rapidity. An ornithological writer
thinks they cry grog, grog; but neither Mr Audubon nor myself
interpreted their notes so, otherwise we could have satisfied a few at
least, as we had a bottle of whisky and a keg of water.
“The young are at first covered with very beautiful close snow-white
down; at the age of about six weeks the feathers make their
appearance among the down; when two months old the birds are
pretty well fledged, and at the end of three months they are able to
fly. The old bird at first feeds the young with a kind of fish-soup
prepared in its gullet and stomach, and which it introduces drop by
drop as it were into its throat. But when its nursling is pretty well
grown, it places its bill within its mouth, and disgorges the fish either
entire or in fragments. They never carry fish to the rock in their bills.
The smallest number of young killed in a year is a thousand, the
greatest two thousand; but in general the number is fifteen or sixteen
hundred. After being plucked, they are sold at from sixpence to a
shilling each. The price of a young bird for stuffing is two shillings; of
an old bird five, of an egg one. For the information contained in this
paragraph I am indebted to the keeper.
“At the period of my second visit with Mr Audubon (the 19th August
1835), the nests in most places had almost entirely disappeared, for
it is only during incubation that the birds keep them in constant
repair. The young were in various stages, a few quite small and
covered all over with white down, the greater number partially
fledged, with the down remaining on the head and neck, and some
nearly ready to fly, and having merely a few tufts of down on the hind
neck. The young lay flat, either on the remnants of their nest, or on
the bare rock or ground. They are very patient and uncomplaining; in
fact, none uttered a single cry while we were inspecting them. I
observed an old bird, with its own young beside it, squeeze the neck
of another youngling with considerable force The poor bird bore the
persecution with perfect resignation, and merely cowered under the
bill of the tyrant. The young of the latter also attacked its neighbour,
but was instantly checked, on which it meekly desisted. One of the
men informed me that last year there were fourteen nests, each with
two eggs. In such cases, one of the young is said to be much smaller
than the other.”

Pelecanus bassanus, Linn. Nat. vol. i. p. 217.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p.
891.
Sula bassana, Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 408.
Gannet, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 495.

Adult Male. Plate CCCXXVI. Fig. 1.

Bill longer than the head, opening beyond the eyes, straight,
elongated-conical, moderately compressed. Upper mandible with the
dorsal line straight and declinate, at the end convex and a little
decurved; ridge very broad, convex, with a slight median carina, and
separated on each side, from the sides, which are nearly
perpendicular, slightly convex, and have an additional narrow jointed
piece below the eye; edges sharp, direct, irregularly serrate, with
numerous slender cuts directed backwards; tip compressed, a little
decurved, rather acute. No external nostrils. Lower mandible with the
angle very long and narrow, the dorsal line straight, ascending, the
sides erect, convex, the edges sharp and serrated, the tip
compressed and sharp.
Head large; neck of moderate length and very thick, body of
moderate bulk, rather elongated; wings long. Feet short, strong,
placed rather far behind; tibiæ concealed; tarsus very short, rounded
before, sharp behind, at its upper part anteriorly with rather large
roundish-flat scales, in the rest of its extent with very small oblong
tubercles; anteriorly there are three lines of small transversely
oblong scutella, which rim down the toes. The latter are long and
slender, all united by membranes, which are reticularly granulated,
and have their margins straight; first toe rather small, directed
inwards and forwards, middle toe longest, the outer almost equal.
Claws of moderate size, slightly arched, those of the first and middle
toes depressed, the latter with its inner edge thin and pectinated.
Plumage generally close, rather compact, the feathers small and
rounded; those on the head and neck blended and slightly glossed.
A bare space between the bill and the eye, surrounding the latter,
and extending an inch behind the angle of the mouth. The gular
membrane also bare for a small breadth, extending two inches
beyond the base of the mandible. About a quarter of an inch of the
tibia bare. Wings very long, narrow, acute; primaries strong, narrow,
tapering rapidly to a rounded point; first longest, second about a
quarter of an inch shorter, the rest rapidly graduated; secondaries
short, rather broad, rounded, with a minute acumen. Tail rather long,
cuneate, of twelve narrow tapering feathers.
Bill pale bluish-grey, tinged with green towards the base; the lines on
the upper mandible blackish-blue; the bare space about the eye, and
that on the throat, blackish-blue. Iris white. Tarsi, toes, and webs
brownish-black, the bands of narrow scutella on the tarsus and toes
light greenish-blue; claws greyish-white. The general colour of the
plumage is white; the upper part of the head and the hind neck of a
fine buff colour. Primary quills brownish-black, their shafts white
toward the base.
Length to end of tail 40 1/2 inches, to end of wings 38 1/4, to end of
claws 41; extent of wings 75; wing from flexure 20 3/4; tail 10; bill
along the ridge 4, along the edge of lower mandible 6; tarsus 2 2/12;
first toe and claw 1 1/4; middle toe 3 8/12, its claw 7/12; outer toe
1/
38 /12; its claw 4/12. Weight 7 lb.
2

The Female is similar to the male, but rather smaller.

Young fully fledged. Plate CCCXXVI. Fig. 2.
Bill light greyish-brown; the bare space around the eye pale greyish-
blue. Iris green. Feet dusky, the narrow bands of scutella pale
greyish-blue; claws greyish-white. The head, neck, and upper parts
are chocolate brown, each feather with a terminal narrow triangular
white spot; the lower parts greyish-white, spotted with greyish-brown;
each feather having a broad terminal margin of that colour. The quills
and tail-feathers are brownish-black. An individual shot in October
measured as follows:—
Length to end of tail 38 inches, to end of claws 32 1/2; extent of
wings 72. Weight 3 lb. 4 oz. This individual, however, was very poor.
Three individuals shot in the neighbourhood of Boston,
Massachusetts, presented the following dimensions, which are here
given as indicative of the difference of size frequently observed:—

Length to end of tail, 38 3/

4 38 3/
4 37
................................wings, 37 1/
2 37 1/
2 35
................................claws, 34 1/
4 34 1/
2 33
Extent of wings, 73 1/
2 72 68 1/2
Wing from flexure, 19 1/
2 17 1/
2 19 1/2

An adult Male killed near Boston. The cellular tissue of the back
exhibits vacuities of very large size, intervening between the skin
and the muscles: one, at the lower part of the neck behind, being 5
inches in length; another 5 1/2 inches long, extending from the
furcula down the humerus; and behind the wings four others,
extending to the last rib. Branches from these pass between the
muscles, which present the appearance of having been as it were
dissected. A cell of enormous size covers the side of the abdomen,
and another pair run down the middle of it, separated by a partition in
the median line. That part of the cellular tissue which adheres to the
bases of the feathers is also remarkably loose; and, close to each of
them, is a roundish aperture of large size, communicating with the
great cavities mentioned above. Between the pectoralis major and
the subjacent muscles is a large interspace formed by a great cell.
The internal thoracic and abdominal cells are also very large.
On the roof of the mouth are five sharp ridges. The nasal aperture is
1 inch and 5 twelfths long, linear, with a soft longitudinal flap on each
side. The tongue is extremely small, being only 7 twelfths long, 1
twelfth broad, blunt at the extremity, and with two papillae at the
base. The bare skin between the crura of the mandibles is of the
same structure as that of the Pelicans and Cormorants, but of small
extent, its posterior acute extremity not extending farther than that at
the base of the bill. The aperture of the glottis is 7 1/2 twelfths long.
The thyroid bone has an anterior curved prolongation, which projects
forwards, and from the extremity of which comes the elastic ligament
by which it is connected with the hyoid bone. The œsophagus, a, b,
is 15 inches long, measured to the commencement of the
proventriculus, extremely dilated, its diameter 2 1/2 inches at the top,
contracting to 2 inches as it enters the thorax, its narrowest part 1
inch 4 twelfths; its transverse muscular fibres moderately strong. The
proventriculus, c, d, is excessively large, 3 1/2 inches long, its
greatest diameter 2 1/4 inches. The glandules are cylindrical, 3
twelfths long, forming a very broad belt, separated however at its
narrowest part by a longitudinal interval of 5 twelfths of an inch, and
having three partial divisions on its lower edge. The greatest length
of the proventriculus, or breadth of the belt of glandules, is 2 1/2
inches. The mucous coat of the œsophagus is smooth, but thrown
into longitudinal plicæ when contracted; that of the proventriculus is
continuous, and of the same nature, being marked with extremely
minute reticulated lines, of which the more prominent have a
longitudinal direction. The stomach, properly so called, d e, is
extremely small, being only 1 inch 9 twelfths long, and about the
same breadth. Its inner coat is similar to that of the œsophagus and
proventriculus; being destitute of epithelium; several large mucous
crypts are scattered over its surface. The pylorus is small, having a
diameter of nearly 3 twelfths, and a marginal flap or valve on one
side. The intestine, f, g, h, is of moderate length, measuring 53
inches. The duodenum at first passes upwards in the direction of the
liver for 2 inches, f g, is then recurved for 3 inches, g, h, ascends for
4 inches, h, i, and receives the biliary ducts, then passes toward the
spine and forms a curvature. The average diameter of the intestine is
5 twelfths at the upper part, and it gradually contracts to 3 twelfths.
The rectum, k, measured to the anus is 5 1/4 inches. It gradually
enlarges from 4 to 6 1/2 twelfths. The cloaca, m, is globular, 9
twelfths long, 8 twelfths broad. The cœca are 3 twelfths long, 1 1/2
twelfth broad.

The lobes of the liver are extremely unequal, as is always the case
when the stomach or the proventriculus is excessively large, the right
lobe being 2 3/4 inches long, the left 1 inch and 8 twelfths. The gall-
bladder, n, is very large, of an oblong form, rounded at both ends, 1
inch and 8 twelfths long.
The trachea is 12 inches long, moderately ossified, round, its
diameter at the top 7 twelfths, gradually narrowing to 4 twelfths; the
rings 124, the lower 4 united, The bronchi are large, their diameter
greater than that of the lower part of the trachea; of 25 cartilaginous
half-rings. The lateral or contractor muscles of the trachea are of
moderate strength; the sterno-tracheals strong; a pair of inferior
laryngeal muscles attached to the glandular-looking, yellowish-white
bodies inserted upon the membrane between the first and second
rings of the bronchi.
The olfactory nerve comes off from the extreme anterior point of the
cerebrum, enters a canal in the spongy tissue of the bone, and runs
in it close to the septum between the eyes for 10 twelfths of an inch,
with a slight curve. It then enters the nasal cavity, which is of an
irregular triangular form, 1 1/2 inch long at the external or palatal
aperture, 10 twelfths in height. The supramaxillary branch of the fifth
pair runs along the upper edge of the orbit, and by a canal in the
spongy tissue of the bones, enters the great cavity of the upper
mandible, keeping nearer its lower surface, and there branching.
This cavity appears to have no communication with the nasal; nor
has the latter any passage towards the obliterated external nostrils.
The lachrymal duct passes obliquely inwards from the anterior
corner of the eye, and enters the nasal cavity by an aperture 1/2
twelfth in diameter, near its anterior margin.
In the cloaca was found a solid calculus, half an inch in diameter, of
an irregular form, white within, externally pale yellowish-brown, and
marked with grooves impressed by the action of the sphincter ani.
The digestive and respiratory organs of the American Gannet are
thus precisely similar to those of the European. In external form,
proportions, and colours, there are no appreciable differences. The