NATATORES. 509 



Sp. 664. STJLA PISCATOR, Linn. 



Red-legged Gannet. 



Sula piscator, Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p, 217. 



Candida, Steph. Cont. of Shaw's Gen. Zool., vol. xiii. p. 103. 



Lesser Gannet, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. vi. p. 611. 

 Sula erythrorhyncha. Less. Traite d'Orn., p. 601. 



rubripes, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part v. p. 156. 



rubripeda, Peale. 



Piscatrix Candida, Reich. Syst. Av., tab. 53. fig. 853; et tab. 55. 

 figs. 2294, 2295. 



Sula piscator, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vii. pi. 79. 



The Red-legged Gannet is very abundant along the 

 northern shores of the Australian continent : and breeds in 

 great numbers on Raine's Islet, whence several fine specimens 

 were brought by the late Commander Ince, R.N., who, inde- 

 pendently of his duties as superintendent of the erection of 

 the beacon on that island, found occupation for his leisure 

 moments in studying its interesting zoology. While acknow- 

 ledging my obligations to Commander Ince, I am bound to 

 add that I am no less indebted to Mr. Macgillivray for the 

 following notes, as well as for a carefully executed diagram 

 of the bill and face, by means of which I have been enabled 

 to colour the soft parts correctly. 



"With the exception," says Mr. Macgillivray, "of one bird 

 which perched on the rigging, and was caught while at sea in 

 the neighbourhood of the Keeling Islands, we found this spe- 

 cies only on Raine's Islet, a vegetated sand-bank in the line of 

 the Great Barrier Reef. When we landed there on the 29th 

 of May, it appeared to me that the breeding-season was then 

 over, but I was fortunate enough to find a solitary bird sitting 

 upon its nest, which contained a single egg. The nest con- 

 sisted of a few roots of a creeper common on the island, 

 forming a platform eighteen inches in diameter laid upon a 

 tuft of herbage. A few days after this, the Gannets, having 



