LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 215 



and falling on the beach with tremendous noise ; the rain, driven by the gale, 

 came in sheets, but in spite of it the cutting white sand was blown with such 

 force against my face and hands that I had repeatedly to turn my back to the 

 storm. 



Vast numbers of herring gulls, royal terns, and Bonaparte gulls sat huddled 

 together in bunches on the upper beach, not daring to trust themselves to the 

 elements. These great gatherings of gulls were very tame and allowed me to 

 walk up close to them, and when they did take wing, skimmed only a short dis- 

 tance along the crest of the beach and lit again, huddled together as before. 



High up overhead an occasional frigate bird swept by on motionless wings, 

 cutting directly into the teeth of the gale, or driving before it with apparent 

 indifference. The stolid pelicans, unmoved by the storm, proceeded as usual 

 up and down the line of breakers, in little companies, with the same meas- 

 ured flight as in the finest weather, rising and falling as the huge breakers 

 rolled under them. 



But to me most interesting of all was a sight I had never before witnessed 

 on the beach, although I had visited it every day ; as far as the eye could reach, 

 up and down the line of surf, were great numbers of boobies flying back and 

 forth and every now and then collecting over some school of small fish and 

 diving from a height like a party of boys following each other off a spring- 

 board. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them. There were 

 probably but two species, though of three styles of coloration. A compara- 

 tively small number were adults of the common booby (Sula sula), easily 

 identified by their brown backs and heads and white bellies ; next in numbers 

 were young birds in wholly grayish brown plumage, but outnumbering both 

 these together was a small white species with conspicuous blackish flight 

 feathers. All these were of about one size. 



For two hours I lay flat on the beach, hoping to get a shot, but though 

 the boobies came often to within a hundred yards of me and sometimes 

 gathered and fished in front of where I lay, none came quite close enough to 

 sb.oot, keeping just outside the breakers. At the end of this time they began 

 gradually, in small parties, to fly out to sea, till all had gone. From the way 

 these birds behaved I do not think they were driven in by stress of weather, 

 because all the time they v:ere off the beach they were very busy fishing, and 

 when they had done they gradually left again, flying out to sea, though the 

 storm had not abated. It is my opinion, rather, that the boobies know by ex- 

 perience that during such a storm there is good fishing on the east Florida 

 beach and come there to enjoy it. 



DISTRIBUTION, 



Breeding range. — On some of the West Indies (Porto Rico, Little 

 Cayman, Dominica, Battowia, Kick-em- Jenny, etc.) ; off the coasts 

 of Venezuela (Los Testigos and Los Hermanos Islands) and Hon- 

 duras (Half -moon Cay, and Little Swan Island) ; in the tropical 

 Atlantic Ocean (Trinidad and Ascension Islands) ; on various islands 

 in the Pacific Ocean (Revillagigedo, Galapagos, Laysan, Fanning, 

 Philippine Islands, etc.) ; and in the Indian Ocean (Glorioso Island 

 and Raine's Islet). 



These Pacific birds may prove to be subspecifically distinct from 

 the Atlantic birds. Said to have nested once on Atwood's Key in 



