204 :manual of Philippine birds. 



Genus SULA Brisson, 1760. 

 Characters same as those given for the Family. 



Species. 



a'. Upper parts, head, and neck mostly pure white (adult) piscator (p. 204) 



a*. Upper parts uniform deep sooty brown. 



fe\ Breast and belly pure white (adult) leucogastra (p. 205) 



b". Breast and belly light brown (immature). 



c^ Outer webs of flight feathers washed with hoary gray piscator (p. 204) 



<f. Outer webs of flight feathers dark bro-nii leucogastra (p. 205) 



168. SULA PISCATOR (Linnsus). 



RED-LEGGED BOOBY. 



Pelecanus piscator Linn^us, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 134. 



Sula piscator Grant, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 432; McGregor and 



Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 39. 

 Sida piscatrix Sharpe, Hand-List (1899). 1, 237; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs 



(1902), 2, 210. 



Mindanao (Steere Exp.). Oceania, southern Atlantic, Indian and Australian 

 seas. 



"Adult. — General color pure white; primaries, primary-coverts, outer 

 webs and tips of secondaries, and secondary-coverts hoary gray, inclining 

 to blackish on outermost quills in freshly molted l)irds, and to blackish 

 in worn specimens; chin and upper part of throat naked, the feathers 

 ending in a straight line across throat; tail composed of fourteen, or 

 sometimes sixteen feathers. Iris gray; bill grayish blue, shading into 

 pink or reddish toward the base ; naked skin round eye blue ; gular pouch 

 dark slate or black; legs and feet vermilion, red or dark pink, almost 

 magenta. 



"Adult male. — Length, about T50; culmcn from feathers on forehead, 

 89; wing, 394; tail, 10 to 28; tarsus, 35. 



"Adult female. — Length, about 710 ; culmen from feathers on forehead, 

 81 to 88; wing, 373 to 375; tail, 208 to 210; tarsus, 35. 



"Immature in first plumage. — Entire plumage above and below brown, 

 lighter on breast and belly; primaries and secondaries and their coverts 

 like those of the adult, but the inner webs of the secondaries black. 

 Cutting edges of the mandible sometimes serrated, and the inner margin 

 of the middle claw pectinate. Bill bluish pink, the latter predominating 

 toward the base; naked skin round eye dark leaden hue; gulai- ])oucli 

 flesh-colored. 



"More adult specimens (perhaps in the plumage of the second year) 

 head, neck, and iinder parts white; back, wings, and tail brown as in the 

 immature; middle tail-feathers dark, brownish gray toward the base, 

 shading into white toward the extremity. 



