DEPARTMENT OF MARINE BIOLOGY. 



173 



nipped off at the primaries, an injury probably inflicted by a ghost crab. A 

 few royal terns were also present at various times, and a pair of adult, noisy 

 laughing gulls always objected to our intrusions. Sooty and noddy terns and 

 man-of-war birds could be seen flying overhead most of the time, but the most 

 interesting tern element on this key was a couple of dozen black terns ranging 

 in plumage from the fully adult blacks through the checkered to the immature 

 of the year, the latter forming the greatest number. These birds were seen on 

 my first visit to this key on July 19, and were present at the end of the month. 

 Their occurrence at the first date seems almost to indicate that they might 

 have bred here, though I greatly doubt if that could have been the case, for 

 we have no record of a colony as far south as this. A small flock of 4 brown 

 pelicans was also present. An osprey divided his time between Bush Key and 

 the fort on Garden Key, and a Ward's heron usually was noted keeping vigil on 

 the inside of the outer reef. Five species of waders were seen on all the dates 

 on which the Key was visited. These were a flock of some 20 ruddy turn- 

 stones, a single sanderling, small scattered flocks of least sandpipers, several 

 semipalmated plovers, and 6 black-belHed plovers. 



The small Sand Key, Tortugas, occasionally harbors a few royal terns and 

 least terns. 



On July 31 we stopped at Marquesas Island, where we noted the following 

 birds: royal tern, brown pelican (6), great white heron (3), Ward's heron, 

 American egret, Louisiana heron, green heron, yellow-crowned night heron, 

 osprey, and gray kingbird. 



Scientific Equivalents for Common Names of Birds Used in Preceding List. 



Laughing gull = Larus atricilla. 



Royal tern = Sterna maxima. 



Common tern = Sterna hirundo. 



Least tern = Sterna antillarum. 



Sooty tern = Sterna fuscata. 



Black tern = Hydrochelidon nigra sui'inam- 



ensis. 

 Noddy tern = Anoiis stolidus. 

 Red-footed booby = Sula piscator. 

 Brown pelican = Pelecanus occidentalis. 

 Man-of-war bird = Fregata magnificens. 

 Great white heron = Ardea occidentalis. 

 Ward's heron = Ardea herodias wardi. 

 American egret = Herodias egretta. 

 Louisiana heron = Hydranassa tricolor ru- 



ficollis. 

 Green heron = Butorides virescens virescens. 

 Yellow-crowned night heron = Nyctanassa 



violacea. 

 Florida clapper rail = Rallus crepitans 



scotti. 

 Least sandpiper = Pisobia minutilla. 

 Sanderling = CaUdris alba. 

 WiUet = Catoptrophorus semipalmatus 



semipalmatus. 

 Black-bellied plover = Squatarola squata- 



rola cynosura?. 



Semipalmated plover = Aegialitis semi- 



palmata. 

 Ruddy turnstone = Arenaria interpres mori- 



nella. 

 Mourning dove = Zenaidura macroura caro- 



linensis. 

 Ground dove = Chsemepelia passerina pas- 



serina. 

 Turkey buzzard = Cathartes aura septen- 



trionaUs. 

 Osprey = Pandion haUaetus carolinensis. 

 Black-billed cuckoo = Coccyzus erythrop- 



thalmus. 

 Red-bellied woodpecker = Centurus caro- 



linus. 

 Gray kingbird = Tyrannus dominicensis. 

 Florida crow = Corvus brachyrhynchos 



pascuus. 

 Bahama red-winged blackbird = Agelaius 



phoeniceus bryanti. 

 Boat-tailed grackle = Megaquiscalus major 



major. 

 Florida cardinal = Cardinalis cardinalis 



floridanus. 

 Key West vireo = Vireo griseus maynardi. 



Alcyonaria as a Contributing Factor in the Formation of Some Pacific Coral 



Reefs, hy Lev/is R. Cary. 



During the period from March 2 to April 18 the writer had the privilege of 

 studying the Alcyonaria on the reefs of the island of Tutuila, American 

 Samoa. While the reefs of the Samoan Islands are by no means among the 



