ALCiu^. 379 



Genus SULA, Brisson. 

 Bill longer than the head, robust, straight, broad at the 

 base, with the sides compressed, and grooved towards the 

 tip, which is slightly curved, and the lateral margins 

 obliquely and unequally serrated ; the nostrils biisal, lateral, 

 linear, placed in a lateral groove, and almost invisible ; 

 wings long, pointed, and tuberculated, with the first two 

 quills the longest ; tail moderate and graduated ; tarsi 

 short, one-third shorter than the outer toe, rounded ante- 

 riorly, and keeled posteriorly ; toes lengthened, the outer 

 and middle ones nearly equal, and all four connected by a 

 full membrane ; the claws moderate, and rather flat, with 

 that of the middle toe serrated ; the hind claw rudiraental ; 

 beneath the base of the lower mandible is a naked space, 

 reaching towards the breast, which is capable of expansion. 



697. Sula CapensiS, Licht. ; S. Melanum, Temm. ; 

 Malagash of Colonists. 



General colour throughout, white ; the larg'er feathers of 

 the wings and tall, black-brown ; the shafts of the former 

 grey ; those of the latter white ; head and neck, and parti- 

 cularly the back of the latter, ochreous-yellow ; space round 

 and before the eye, bare, and of a dark-blue colour ; a bare 

 stripe of the same extends from the angle of the mouth, 

 on each side of the head, and from the chin, two-thirds of 

 the way down the ne:k ; irides, pale-fulvous ; legs, dark liv d- 

 colour. Length, 36"; wing, 19"; tail, 10". 



The Common Gannet of South Africa frequents, in countless 

 thousands, the whole of our coast line, breeding on the various islands 

 scattered over the whole extent from St. Ann's Hirer to the Eastward 

 of Natal to the guano islands off Angra Pcquina. It visits Table 

 Bay in vast numbers in the months of April and May, in pursuit of 

 the shoals of fish that then appear on the surface, upon which they 

 pounce with almost unerring aim, from a great altitude, becoming 

 entirely submerged by the violence of their descent. I have never 

 seen this species far from land : they invariably have disappeared on 

 the morning after the ship's departure, if standing oiF the land. 

 Eggs of a blue-ground, covered with white chalk : axis, 3" 5'"; 

 diam., 2". 



Genus GRACULUS, Linnajus. 



Bill moderate, straight, somewhat slender, with the culmen 

 concave, and suddenly hooked at the tip ; the sides compressed 

 and grooved ; the nostrils basal, lateral, linear, placed in the 

 lateral groove, and scarcely visible ; wings moderate and 



