2 THE GANNET 



nor has that of Moris,'^ conferred by W. Leach in 1816, 

 and altered by Vieillot to Morus m 1817, found favour. 

 I have deemed it safest under these circumstances to follow 

 the generality of authors in making use of Sula, a name 

 apphed by Mathurin Brisson in the " Ornithologie " (1760), 

 and since generally adopted in all works of authority. 



It is not intended in this volume to enter into a considera- 

 tion of the specific differences which constitute the characters 

 of the different kinds of Gannets, the greater part of which 

 are best known in popular language under their Enghsh 

 appellation of Boobies. A key to the Family Sulidce, by 

 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, which cannot but be found 

 very useful, giving the leading characteristics of nine 

 species, to which three more subspecies have been added 

 since, is given in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum " (XXVI., p. 424 et seq.). Of two of these, S. 

 capensis and S. serrator, we shall have more to say further 

 on, in an appendix, for it is these, together with 8. hassana, 

 which in the restricted sense of the word are the true 

 Gannets. 



Of these three true Gannets the bird now under considera- 



* Mr. W. Stone says the enforcement of the code of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union would require the use of Morus Vieill. in preference 

 to Dysporus (" Auk," 1907, p. 194), which is synonymous with Sula. 

 Leach's names were printed without any description, and Mr. O. Salvin 

 doubted if his List was even ever actually published {see " Leach's S. 

 Cat." reprinted by The Willughby Society, in 1882). 



