954 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — STEGANOPODES. 



{Subgenus Dysporus.) 



S. (D.) bassa'na. (Of Bass Rock, Firth of Forth.) Common Gannet. White Gannet. 

 Solan or Soland Goose. Jan van Gent. Grand Fou. Adult J* 9 : Bill pale grayish, 

 tinged with greenish or bluish ; nasal groove, lores, and gular sac blackish ; feet black, with 

 greenish or bluish scutella; claws pale gray ; iris white or pale yellowish. Plumage white; 

 primaries and their coverts black ; head washed with amber-yellow. Length 3 feet or more ; 

 extent 6 feet, more or less; wing 17.00-21.00 inches; tail 9.00-10.00, pointed, 1 2- feathered ; 

 culmen 4.00, gape 6.00 ; tarsus 2.00 ; middle toe and claw 4.00. Young : Bill brownish ; 

 lores livid bluish ; feet dusky ; iris green. Plumage dark brown, spotted with white, be- 

 low from neck grayish-white, each feather darker-edged (character much as in a young 

 Night-heron) ; wing-quills and tail-feathers blackish. This dusky, sharply-spotted plumage 

 gradually clears up white, the changes beginning on the head, neck, and under parts, which 

 become white while the back is still brown and more or less spotted ; the change is completed 

 at the end of the 3d year. North Atlantic coasts, swarming in summer at certain northern 

 breeding -places, as Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, and Bonaventure Island and Gannet Rock 

 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; S. to Africa and the Gulf of Mexico in winter. Nest of seaweed ; 

 egg single, 3.00 X 2.00, pale greenish-blue flaked over with white chalky substance. Young 

 hatch naked, blackish, pot-bellied ; later covered with thick white or pale yellowish down. 



(Subgenus Sula.) 



S. (S.) cy'anops. (Gr. Kvavos, kuanos, Lat. ci/aneus, blue ; w\|/', ops, face.) Blue-faced 

 Booby. Sundev all's Booby. Gular sac ending squarely across throat. Adult ^ 9 '■ 

 Naked face and sac livid blue, drying slaty or blackish ; bill grayish, greenish, or yellowish, 

 drying undefinable horn color; iris yellow; feet reddish, drying dingy. Plumage white; pri- 

 maries, secondaries, and their coverts, and tail-feathers, blackish, latter more or less extensively 

 white fnjm the base. Young : Only white below from the neck ; head, neck, and upper parts 

 dark grayish-brown, with white feathers here and there, especially on hind neck and rump. 

 This plumage gradually clears up. The color of the soft parts varies much in life, and always 

 changes in drying. Length about 30.00 ; wing 15.50-17.50 ; tail 7.75-8.75, composed of 16, 

 rarely 18 feathers; culmen 3.50-4.00; depth of bill at base 1.25-1.60; tarsus 1.75-2.25; 

 middle toe 2.25 or more. A Booby of wide distribution in warm seas of the globe, inhabiting 

 the West Indies and occasionally occurring in Florida. It should have been admitted to 2d 

 edition of the Key, 1884, having been then ascertained to occur within our limits (Lawr. 

 Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, xiv, p. 302. Dysporus cyanops Sund. 1837 ; Sula cyanops Sund. 

 1842 ; Coues, Key, 3d ed. 1887, p. 890 ; Ridgw. Man. 1887, p. 75 ; A. O. U. Lists, 1st and 

 2deds. No [114]. 



S. (S.) pisca'tor. (Lat. piscator, a fisherman.) Red-footed Booby. Gould's Booby. 

 Gular sac ending squarely across throat. Adult $ 9 : Sac blackish ; bare face violet-blue ; 

 bill bluish, becoming reddish toward base, there contrasting in color with lores and sac; iris 

 gray; feet rich red, varying from pink or coral to purplish, drying dingy. Plumage white, 

 tinged with buff on head and neck ; primaries and their coverts, secondaries and coverts in 

 part, slate-gray, or wearing to blackish, this color chiefly on outer webs and tips of seconda- 

 ries and their coverts ; shafts of tail-feathers yellowish. Young : Brown, nearly uniform, but 

 paler on breast and belly ; wings as in adult, but more extensively blackish. This plumage 

 clears up by degrees, with great variability, but the species is easy to recognize at any age 

 by the characters here given. Length about 29.00; wing 15.00-15.50; tail 8.50-9.00, com- 

 posed of 14-16 feathers ; culmen 3.25 ; depth of bill at base 1.10 or less; tarsus 1.35; middle 

 toe 2.25. Eggs 2, 2.60 X 1-80. Tropical and subtropical coasts and islands of most 



