316 Mr. P. R. Lowe on Birds collected 



On the second morning of our stay at the island we saw a 

 flock of quite a thousand, flying in a dense and compact 

 mass. They were evidently following a shoal of fish, which 

 occasionally rose to the surface, and as they watched the fish 

 below their movements appeared to be actuated by a single 

 will or volition, so that they dipped or rose or inclined to 

 the right or left as if at the word of command of a single 

 individual. Through all their movements they kept the 

 closest order, and when from time to time they dived 

 the whole flock fell plumb to the water as one bird, the sea 

 being lashed and churned to white foam over a very circum- 

 scribed area in a most remarkable manner. 



A curious thing which we noticed was that occasionally 

 the whole compact flock made a sort of feint at the water, 

 and then with one accord turned again to regain their 

 former level of flight, as if the shoal of fish had been sighted 

 but the birds realised in the middle of their dive that 

 their prey were too deep. 



I have watched many thousands of Gannets of different 

 species fishing, but have never seen them hunt together 

 in this way before. As a rule, where numbers are fishing 

 together, each bird acts independently ; but this flock, 

 which consisted entirely, so far as I could make out, of 

 examples of Sula sula, acted in a unison as perfect as that 

 exhibited by a flock of Starlings. 



Sula piscator (Linn.). 



This Gannet w^as also breeding on the smaller islands of 

 the group. It was not present in such numbers as S. sula. 

 Examples of all three stages of plumage were noticed. 

 Most of the nests behmged to individuals in the white- 

 tailed and brown-bodied stage of plumage. Birds in the 

 wholly brown stage do not breed, being apparently too 

 young. Birds in the fully adult white plumage are, in com- 

 parison with birds in the middle stage of plumage, quite rare. 

 This species invariably makes its nest in low trees, either 

 mangrove or sea-grape. 



