Iv SULIDAE 
Ni 
ios) 
often met with many hundred miles from land; they will then hover 
constantly about a vessel, or even alight fearlessly on the rigging. 
They traverse the air with rapid sweeping flight, accompanied by 
constant quick pulsations of the wings; at one time soaring aloft 
to wheel in circles, at another plunging into the water from an 
immense height, though appearing again in a moment to float wpon 
the surface. Their gait on land is shuttling, while they can hardly 
rise from level ground; the note is a harsh croak or chatter; the 
Fig. 20.—Tropic Bird. Phaéthon aethereus. x 
1 
Ss 
food consists of fish, squids, and other produce of the sea. No nest 
is made, but a single reddish-brown or buff ege, with spots and 
frecklings of red-brown, purplish or grey, is deposited in a hole or 
crevice in a cliff, among rocks, or even in a cavity in a rotten tree, 
both sexes assisting in incubation.’ The parents sit very closely, 
screaming, pecking, and snapping when disturbed; im some places 
they are habitually caught while breeding, and deprived of the 
long tail-feathers, which are used for decorations. 
Fam. II. Sulidae.—Suw/a bassana, the Gannet or Solan Goose, 
which nests at several stations off the west of Great Britain, in 
Ireland, and on the well-known Bass Rock,extends thence to Iceland, 
and down the American coast to Nova Scotia, while it strays to 
Greenland, and in winter reaches the Gulf of Mexico and northern 
Africa. The plumage is white, with a buff tinge on the head and 
neck, and black primaries; the billis whitish, the feet dusky, and 
the naked skin round the eye and down the centre of the throat 
blackish-blue. 8S. capensis of South Africa and S. serrator of 
Australia are similar to the above, but the former has the rectrices 
black, the latter the four median feathers blackish-brown. 
1 Of. E. Newton, Jbis, 1861, pp. 180, 276; Layard, op. cit. 1863, p. 248. 
