BY A. F. BASSET HULL. 67 1 



nest; or, where both eggs hatched out, by ejecting one of the young 

 birds and allowing it to die from cold and starvation.* 



The parent-birds appeared to have no immediate lack of food, 

 as ill each case upon my approach the sitting bird vomited up a 

 " wad " of comparatively fresh fish of the mackerel genus, packed 

 together with the heads all in one direction, and covered with 

 greyish slime. One of these wads, which I inspected closely, 

 consisted of six fresh fish about six inches in length. 



Mr. Tom Iredale informs me that on the Kermadec Islands 

 this Gannet lays from one to five eggs. 



The nest is generally placed in an elevated position command- 

 ing a good outlook, but a few were close to the shore on a sloping 

 ridge, placed amongst tussocks of Mooo grass. Where the soil 

 was soft, a slight depression was made, and a few straws or 

 rushes laid therein. On the harder ground a slight ridge of 

 pebbles or small lumps of clay was raked up round the eggs. 



When first laid the eggs are covered with a soft white chalky 

 substance, which can easily be removed by scraping, disclosing a 

 shell of a delicate pale bluish tint. The soft coating rapidly 

 absorbs colour from the soil upon which it is laid, and, owing to 

 its being frequently turned by the sitting bird, this added colour 

 is most intense round the thickest part of the egg. Specimens 

 taken from the clayey soil of the Admiralty Islets are from dirty 

 white to blackish-brown, while some of those taken from the 

 brilliant red soil of Phillip Island range from ochraceous to deep 

 orange-red. 



* In their article on the Birds of Clipperton and Cocos Islands (vide 

 p.662; Snodgrass and Heller give the following note : — " On Clipperton 

 this bird [S. cyauops] was found breeding in immense numbers in Novem- 

 ber," [the Island was visited on 23rd and 24th November, 1898]. The 

 nests consisted of slight depressions scraped in the coral sand and contained 

 one or two eggs each. The nesting had just begun, for no incubated eggs 

 or young birds were seen. A set generally consisted of two eggs, but we 

 were assured by people living on the island that only one young bird of 

 each pair is reared, the other being left by its parents to starve on account 

 of the extreme voracity of the young, "(o/a cit. p. 512). 



