208 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Jamaica, St. Thomas, Dominica, St. Vincent, Battowia, etc.) ; the 

 Cayman Islands ; off the coasts of Venezuela (Los Testigos and Los 

 Hermanos Islands), Honduras (Belize and Swan Islands), Costa 

 Rica (Uvita Island), and Brazil (San Paulo and Fernando No- 

 ronha) ; and in the tropical Atlantic Ocean (St. Paul Rocks and 

 Ascension Island). Birds which breed on islands in the western 

 Pacific and the Indian Oceans are probably subspecifically distinct. 

 Breeding grounds protected on Desecheo Island reservation, Porto 

 Rico. 



Winter range. — The Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic 

 Ocean, from the Bahamas and Florida south to the Straits of Magel- 

 lan and Ascension Island. 



Casual records. — Has wandered to Massachusetts (Cape Cod, Sep- 

 tember 17, 1878), Bermuda (October 3, 181:7, and September 26, 

 1875), and Louisiana (below New Orleans, two taken in September, 

 1884). 



Egg dates. — Bahama Islands : Sixteen records, January 14 to June 

 12 ; eight records, April 15 to May 19. 



SULA BREWSTERI Goss. 

 BREWSTEH BOOBY. 



HABITS. 



This species is in much the same class geographically as the blue- 

 footed booby ; neither would be included in our fauna except for the 

 inclusion of that extra-limital strip, Lower California. It somewhat 

 resembles Sula leucogastrls and takes the place of that species on the 

 Pacific coast of Mexico. 



Nesting. — It was first described by Col. N. S. Goss (1S88«), who 

 found it breeding on San Pedro Martir Isle in the Gulf of California ; 

 he saj'S of its breeding habits : 



The birds were not wild, but their nesting places as a whole were not in as 

 exposed situations as those of the blue-footed ; they seemed to prefer the shelves 

 and niches on the sides of the rocks. They lay two eggs, and in all cases collect 

 a few sticks, seaweed, and often old wing or tail feathers ; these are generally 

 placed in a circle to fit the body, with a view, I tlilnk, to keep the eggs that lie 

 upon the rock from rolling out. There is but little material on or about the isle 

 out of which a nest can be made. 



The birds must conuuence laying as early as the 10th of February, for I found 

 in many cases young birds from half to two-thirds grown — white, downy little 

 fellows with deep l)luish black skins — that, in places where they can, wander 

 about regardless of the nests where they were hatclied. 



Mr. H. H. Bailey (190G) gives us the following account of the 

 habits of the Brewster booby on the west coast of Mexico : 



Tills species was conniion along the coast of San Bias, roosting on the small 

 rocks near the shore and on a large white rock some ten miles west of San Bias, 



