.VESTS AXD EGGS OJ- AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. ^85 



laying seasou merely extends from September to February. 1 have 

 had fresh eggs from Gannet rookeries takeu respectively iu October, 

 November, December, aud January. 



I received from Mr. J. C. McLean, of Gisbome, specimens of eggs 

 dated 21st December, 1888, from a Gannet rookery on Kidnapper Cape, 

 near Napier, New Zealand. Mr. McLean visited that rookeiy five 

 successive seasons. He estimated it consisted of over 300 nests, which 

 never contained more than a single egg or young. These nests were 

 on the gfrouud, and formed of dirt, having a rim composed of a little 

 coarse sea^weed, and distant one from another (centre to centre) about 

 30 inches. One measured as follows: width at base, 21 inches; depth 

 outside, 3 inches ; cavity, 9 inches across by 1 A inches deep. Mr. McLean 

 was also kind enough to send me pliotogiaphs of this most interesting 

 bird colony, the fii-st pictures, I believe, ever taken of a Gamiet rookery. 



727. — SfL.v CYANOPS, Simdevall. — (662) 

 MASKED GANNET. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, vol. vii., pi. 77. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxvi., p. 430. 



Previous Descripliotts of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of .Vustralia (1848), 

 also Handbook, vol. ii., p. 506 (1S65) ; Legge : Birds of 

 Ceylon, p. iiSi (18S0) ; Crowfoot (Metcalfe): Ibis, p. 269 

 (1885); North: Austn. Mus. Cat., app. (1889); Campbell: 

 Victorian Naturalist (1889) ; Walker : Ibis, p. 257 (1892). 



Geographical Distribution. — Seas of North-west Australia, Northern 

 Territoiy, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria ( ?) ; also tropical 

 seas of the world. 



Xest. — Constructed of herbage, sometimes only a few pieces of dry 

 gi-ass, sticks, &c. — often no nest at all. Situation (on Phillip aud Nepean 

 Islets, adjacent to Norfolk Island), on the flat ground about the hill 

 tops and sides ; on some of the tropical islands the nesting place is merely 

 a slight concavity in the coral sand. 



Ecjgs. — Clutch, one to two, usually two ; elliptical in shape, both ends 

 nearly pointed alike ; texture of shell coarse ; surface slightly glossy ; 

 colour, hmy coating, dull-white more or less stained with brown, 

 obsciu-es a bluish-white shell. Dimensions in inches of selected 

 examples: (1) 2-8 x 1-84, (2) 2-72 x 1-77, (3) 2-69 x 1-9, (4) 2-55 x 1-71. 



Observatiom. — The Masked Gannet is chiefly found in tropical seas, 

 occm-ring in Australian regions as far south as Norfolk Island, where 

 it breeds. 



Gould did not succeed in procming examples of this Gannet diuing 

 his own researches in Australia ; but it once came luider his notice 

 diu-ing his voyage from Hobart to Sydney, 1839, when, on approaching 



