466 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 56. 



among the guano birds, and the larger but far less common form of 

 the north, Sula nebouxi Milne-Edwards. Along the greater part of 

 the coast Sula variegata is known as the "piquero."* In the north, 

 however, as at the Lobos Islands where the larger species of Sula is 

 found, the latter is called "piquero" while the smaller Sula variegata 

 is commonly known as the "camanay. " 



SULA VARIEGATA (Tschudi). 



THE VARIEGATED GANNET OR " PIQUERO." 



The common "piquero, " sometimes called "camanay, " is a 

 beautiful bird with head, neck, and breast of pure white, the back 

 and upper surface of wing variegated with dark and light fuscous and 

 white, while the sides and belly are nearly pure white; the feet, legs, 

 and bill are blue, and the eyes are ruby in color (see pis. 57 and 58). 

 The piqueros are almost omnipresent on the Peruvian coast, and un- 

 doubtedly they are the most abundant of the sea fowl. Along the 

 mainland shore and about the islands of any size, there is scarcely a 

 cliff but is more or less dotted with the nests of piqueros (pi. 59). 



It is a striking sight when a single gannet, after circling over the 

 water until its food is seen, turns suddenly head down and falls precipi- 

 tately into the surface of the sea to disappear from view; after a few 

 moments it reappears on the surface to swallow its prey before rising 

 to fly at varying heights until tempted for another plunge. Some- 

 times they seem to drop from nearly a hundred feet, while the wings 

 are held slightly opened to direct the head-long coiu^e; again they 

 fall from only 10 or 15 feet, or they may simply dash themselves into 

 the water when barely risen from the surface. Ten or 20 or 30 birds 

 are not infrequently seen to fall simultaneously with a loud splash 

 and dash of spray. 



The writer had a rare experience that seems worthy of record. 

 While passing from the Chincha Islands to Pisco in a fisherman's row- 

 boat, we saw an actual cloud of thousands of piqueros flying over a 

 school of anchobetas, when suddenly they began to fall, hundreds at 

 a time until practically the whole cloud was precipitated into the sea 

 before the first birds had risen from their brief rest after emerging 

 from beneath the surface. Scarcely a bird was seen in the air. The 

 first to fall were soon up, however, and from that time on the plunges 

 were uninterrupted. Changing the course of our boat a little we soon 

 rowed directly through this downpour of birds. Hundreds of birds 

 seemed to strike the water at every instant, and even within a few 

 feet of our boat. The bewildering effect is to be imagined rather than 

 described; the atmosphere "cloudy" with birds; the surface of the 

 sea broken and spattering from falls of animate drops and speckled 



1 Pronounced pe-ka'-ro. Accent on second syllable. 



