214 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the postnuptial molt is complete, and probably the prenuptial molt 

 includes everything but the wings. 



Food. — The food of the red-footed booby consists of various fishes 

 and squids. 



Behavior.— Mr. E. W. Gifford (1913) writes of the habits of this 

 species as follows: 



When a bird alighted at its nest or beside its mate it craned its neck and, 

 swinging its head from side to side, uttered a long, harsh, cackling call con- 

 sisting of a short guttural note repeated fifteen or twenty times in quick suc- 

 cession. This call resembled somewhat the call given by the man-o'-war bird 

 when on the nest, only that it was harsher. At Cocos Island the birds in the 

 trees kept up a continual loud cackling noise. 



When these boobies were asleep or pluming themselves in some tree, a per- 

 son could walk right up to them before being noticed. They usually straight- 

 ened up with a startled expression, often uttering a short squawk of surprise. 

 If one continued to disturb them they would squawk vociferously and try to 

 fly away, frequently floundering about among the branches. 



The flight of the red-footed booby is more graceful than that of the blue- 

 faced and the Peruvian, and somewhat resembles that of a large shearwater. 

 When in the vicinity of Cocos Island and of Clarion Island, flocks of red- 

 footed boobies were seen flying away from the islands in the morning and 

 toward them in the evening. The flocks contained from six to fifteen birds. 

 The birds fly with the same gentle, wave-like rise and fall that characterizes 

 the flight of other members of this genus. The wing-strokes occur on the rise ; 

 on the downward swing the bird sails, in calm weather often going several 

 yards very close to the surface of the water. The members of a flock are prac- 

 tically synchronous in every action. 



In fishing, the red-footed booby pursues the same tactics as the blue-footed, 

 diving, with wings half closed and rigid, from a height of twenty or thirty 

 feet. On one occasion, however, I saw one catching flying-fish on the wing 

 by swooping into schools which were skimming along above the water. 



Winter. — At the close of the breeding season the birds disperse 

 and scatter out over the ocean, congregating at times in large num- 

 bers where schools of fish are to be found. A striking picture of 

 their winter activities is furnished by Mr. Outram Bangs (1902) as 

 follows : 



On February 12, 1895, occurred the second terrible " freeze " of that mem- 

 orable winter. At the time I was at Oak Lodge, on the East Peninsula of the 

 Indian River, opposite Micco. For several days thereafter the weather con- 

 tinued to be very cold and unsettled, with high winds that drove the water out 

 of the Indian River to such an extent that it was impossible to cross it in a 

 boat, and culminated on February 16 in a northeasterly gale accompanied by 

 rain, of a violence seldom attained on the east coast of Florida in winter. About 

 10 o'clock of that morning (February 16, 1895), Mrs. Latham came into the 

 workshop where I was skinning my morning's catch, thankful to be indoors 

 again out of the storm, and told me she had just been at the beach and had 

 seen a great many birds there, among them what she thought were gannets, 

 fishing in the breakers. I instantly took my gun and started along the trail 

 through the palmetto hummock, fighting my way foot by foot against the 

 fury of the wind and rain. On arriving at the beach I was greeted by the 

 wildest scene imaginable; huge breakers were rolling in over the shallow water 



