g88 .VESTS AA'D EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



the trees and bushes, and looked like gi-cat balls of snow-white down. 

 The nests are rudely consti-ucted of coarse twigs, and are built on the 

 low trees. 



" We arriN'ed at Christmas Island one mouth later, in Januaiy, and 

 there we found the Gaunets still sitting on their eggs ; few or no young 

 were to be seen. This difference is probably induced by the physical 

 conditions siuTounding them. One of the islands is situated almost 

 directly on the equator, exposed to the fiercest rays of the tropical sun ; 

 it is devoid of fresh water, and it rarely or never rains ; the vegetation 

 is scanty and stunted, and life in general lias a. veiy unequal straggle 

 for existence. On the other island. Palmyra, a condition of things 

 directly opposite to these exists. The Gannets of Christmas island 

 have a vei-y curious habit, which, as far as oui- observations extended, 

 is confined to those of that island. Under theii' nests, which were 

 quite low on accooint of the stunted condition of the shrubbery, were 

 mounds, one or two feet high, built of twigs, and in some instances 

 soUdly cemented together by then- excrement. It probably affords them 

 diversion, diu-ing the monotonous period of incubation, to break off all 

 the twigs within reach of their bill and to drop them under their nests. 

 These mounds fimiish evidence of the nests being occupied for several 

 successive years ; for the lean bushes could not furnish a sufiicient amount 

 of ^twigs to build them up in a single breeding season." 



Following up my notes on Maiden Island in the '' Victorian 

 Natm-alist," Mr. R. S. Sugars gives some interesting remarks on Gamiets, 

 gleaned by his cousin, Mr. John McCidlough. The period of incu- 

 bation in the case of the Red-legged Gannet was timed at forty-five 

 days in one instance. Mr. Sugars was good enough to present me with 

 an egg of this species, dated 23rd October, 1894. These birds were 

 obsei-ved breeding from the middle of August to December. 



729. — SuLA SULA, Linnaeus. — (663) 

 S. fiber, Linnaeus. 



BROWN GANNET (BOOBY). 



Figure.— GouM : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vii., pi. 78. 



Reference.— Cai. Birds Bnt. Mus., vol. .\xvi., p. 436. 



Previous Description of £^|'.t.— Gould : Birds of Australia, Hand- 

 book, vol. ii., p. 507 (1S65); Legge : Birds of Ceylon, p. 1179 

 (1880); North: Austn. Mus. Cat., p. 364 (1889); Campbell: 

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



a,-i,yriiph,nil /Jis/rihulli,/i .—Seas of North-west Australia, Northeni 

 Territory, and Nortli Queensland ; also the tropical and sub-tropical seas 

 of tlio world, except the Pacific coast of America. 



,Yf.s7. Somewhat flat, slovenly constructed of dry herbage, and 



situated upon the gi'ound, in colonies, upon certain islands in the Tropics. 



Effgs.— Clutch, two usually, tlu-ec occasionally; elliptically inclined 

 in siiape; texture of shell coarse; surface without gloss; colour. 



