350 siii,id;i<;. 



more len^'thened in form, approaching more nearly those of some of tiie larger species of 

 Cormorants. They are of the same pale greenish or bluish-white, the shell being thickly coated 

 with a calcareous co\ering, and usually nest stained, scratches here and there, made by the 

 nails of the sitting bird, reveahng the triie colour of the shell. Three eggs in Dr. W. Macgillivtay's 

 collection, taken by him on the 30th October, 1910, from different nests on Raine Islet, 

 measure respectively: — Length (A) 2-37 x i-47inches; (B) 2-4 x I'sS inches; (C) 2-33 x 1-53 

 inches. .Ml the eggs taken that day were either fresh or only slightly incubated. 



Sula sula. 



BROWN GAN'NKT. 

 Pelecanus sula, Linn., Syst. Nat., Tom. I., p. 218 (177G) 

 Sula fasca, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VII., pi. 78 (1848). 

 Sula fiber, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. 11., p. .507 (1865). 

 Stda lencogaslra, Sclat. and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1878, p. 651. 



Stilatiula, Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 436 (1898); Sharps, Hand-I. Bds., 

 Vol. 1., p. 2:i6 M899). 



Adult .male. — Entire head, neck, chest and all the vjiper jiarts, including the wings and tail 

 dark broivti ; breast, abdomen^ and under tail-coverts pure white ; " bill bluish towards the base, white 

 at the tip ; f"et light green ; eyes grey " (Murray). Total length 2S'5 inches, wing 15, tail 7-o, bill 

 Jj, tarsus ti'S5. 



Adult femalk. — Similar in plumage /o /he viaJe. 



DislrdintioH. — Coasts of North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, 

 Queensland, Islands of Torres Strait. 



gF-N Australian waters the range of the Brown Gannet eNtends, roughly speaking, around the 

 Jl northern half of the continent, and according to Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant in the "Catalogue 

 of Birds in the British Museum," '■ it is found throughout the " tropical and sub-tropical seas of 

 the world, except the Pacific coast of .America, where its place appears to be taken by Sula 

 hreu'stcri." During the voyage of the " Rattlesnake" Mr. J. MacGillivray found it breeding on 

 Bramble Cay. The members of the " Chevert Expedition " also found it breeding on the same 

 island in 1875, ^nd the late Mr. George Masters, one of the members, recorded observing it all along 

 the Eastern Coast of Queensland, from Moreton Bay to New Guinea. Both birds and eggs were 

 obtained by the members of the " Challenger Expedition," on Raine Island, during the same 

 year, nesting in the centre of the island along with Sula cyanops. Dr. E. P. Ramsay records it 

 from Cardwell Bay, but states that it is more plentiful ofl' a small reef to the south-east of 

 Hinchinbrook Island, and near the mouth of the Herbert River; also in a collection of birds 

 made on the southern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and Gould records it from Port Essington, 

 in the Northern Territory of South .\ustralia. Mr. James Walker, R.N. , found it breeding in 

 May, 1891, on Adele Island, about forty-hve miles to the north of the entrance to King Sound, 

 North-western Australia, in company with Sula cyanops. Mr. J. T. Tunney, collecting on behalf 

 of the Western Australian Museum, Perth, also found it nesting in company with .S. cyanops, on 

 Bedout Island, opposite Condon and the entrance to the De Grey River, in North-western 

 Australia. 



Referring to this species in his " Birds of America,"! .Audubon writes :— " The flight of the 

 Booby (Sula fusca) is graceful and extremely protracted. They pass swiftly at a height of from 

 twenty yards to a foot or two from the surface, often following the troughs of the waves to a con- 



Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 439 (i8g8). t Bds. Am., Vol. VII.. p. 59. 



