46 OCEAN BIRDS. 



about seventy miles from the north-eastern coast of the Austrahan continent, and surrounded 

 by a part of the great barrier reef, he ' found this bird breeding in colonies at its S.W. 

 coast, the nest being composed of a few small sticks collected from the shrubs and 

 herbaceous plants which alone clothe the island, and placed either on the ground or on 

 the plants, a few inches above it. The eggs, which are generally one, but occasionally 

 two in number, are of a pure white, not so chalky in appearance as those of the Gannet, 

 and nearly of the same shape at both ends. Upon one occasion I killed the old birds 

 from a nest that contained a young one ; on visiting the spot I found the young bird 

 removed to another nest, the proprietors of which were feeding it as if it had been their 

 own ; I am sure of this fact, because there was no other nest near it containing two 

 young birds. Some of the eggs were quite fresh, while others had been so far sat upon 

 that we could not blow them ; and many of the young birds must have been hatched 

 some two or three weeks. We regarded these birds as the Falcons of the sea, for we 

 repeatedly saw them compel the Terns, Boobies, and Gannets to disgorge their prey, and 

 then adroitly catch it before it fell to the ground or water. We never saw them settle on 

 the water, l)ut constantly soaring round and round, apparently on the watch for what the 

 smaller birds were bringing home. I have found in their pouch young turtles, fish, cuttle- 

 fish, and small crabs.' " 



In 'The Field,' 4th July, 1885, Mr. H. 0. Forbes, describing bird-life in the Keeling 

 Islands, says : — " The Noddy Tern (Anous stolidus) and the Gannet {Sula piscatrix) were 

 seen in thousands ; and he had many an opportunity of noting how their industrious 

 habits are taken advantage of by the swift-winged Frigate-birds (Tachijpetes minor), much 

 in the same way that the Brown Skuas pursue and harass the English Gulls." 



The bird is thus described by Gould : — " The male has the entire plumage brownish 

 black, the feathers of the head glossed with green, and the lengthened plumes of the 

 back with purple and green reflexions ; orbits and gular pouch deep red ; bill bluish horn- 

 colour ; irides black ; feet dark reddish brown. The female is similar to the male, but 

 browner ; is destitute of the coloured plumes on the back ; has some of the wing-coverts 

 and tertiaries edged with light brown, forming a mark along the wing ; a collar at the back 

 of the neck ; the breast and upper parts of the flanks white, washed with rufous. A nestling 

 bird in my collection is clothed with white down, except on the back and the scapularies, 

 where the dark brown coloured and perfect feathers have just been assumed." 



In the Natural History Museum there are specimens of male, female, and young, the 

 latter having the usual light-coloured head. 



