'''%^''''\ General No^es. 395 



Auk ' for April, 1902. Both birds were evidently on their spring north- 

 erly migration and were lost at sea and wandered here by accident. — Wm. 

 Alanson Bryan, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, H. I. 



The Occurrence of Boobies in Numbers on the East Coast of Florida, 

 during a Storm. — Two white Boobies {Sula cyanops and S. piscator) are 

 given in the A. O. U. Check-List as occasional visitants to the Florida 

 coast, but as actual records are meagre it is, perhaps, worth while to pub- 

 lish an account of a day, during a terrific storm, when I saw a species of 

 small white booby in company with the Common Booby (Sula sula) fish- 

 ing in large numbers off the beach of the East Peninsula. Unfortunately 

 I was not able to secure a specimen or positively identify the species, 

 though I feel sure it was 5'. piscator (or possibly .S. coryi Maynard, if 

 that bird is really distinct). 



On February 12, 1895, occurred the second terrible ' freeze ' of that mem- 

 orable winter. At the time I was at Oak Lodge, on the East Peninsula 

 of the Indian River, opposite Micco. For several days thereafter the 

 weather continued to be very cold and unsettled, with high winds that 

 drove the water out of the Indian River to such an extent that it was 

 impossible to cross it in a boat, and culminated on Feb. 16, in a northeast- 

 erly gale accompanied by rain, of a violence seldom attained on the east 

 coast of Florida in winter. About 10 o'clock of that morning (Feb. 16, 

 1895) Mrs. Latham came into the workshop where I was skinning my 

 morning's catch, thankful to be indoors again out of the storm, and told 

 me she had just been at the beach and had seen a great many birds there, 

 among them what she thought were Gannets, fishing in the breakers. 

 I instantly took my gun and started along the trail through the palmetto 

 hummock, fighting my way foot by foot against the fury of the wind and 

 rain. On arriving at the beach I was greeted by the wildest scene imagin- 

 able ; huge breakers were rolling in over the shallow water and falling on 

 the beach with tremendous noise ; the rain, driven by the gale, came in 

 sheets, but in spite of it the cutting white sand was blown with such force 

 against my face and hands, that I had repeatedly to turn my back to the 

 storm. 



Vast numbers of Herring Gulls, Royal Terns and Bonaparte^s Gulls 

 sat huddled together in bunches on the upper beach, not daring to trust 

 themselves to the elements. These great gatherings of gulls were very 

 tame and allowed me to walk up close to them, and when they did take 

 wing skimmed only a short distance along the crest of the beach and lit 

 again, huddled together as before. 



High up overhead an occasional Frigate Bird swept by on motionless 

 wings, cutting directly into the teeth of the gale, or driving before it with 

 apparent indifference. The stolid Pelicans, unmoved by the storm, pro- 

 ceeded as usual up and down the line of breakers, in little companies, 

 with the same measured flight as in the finest weather, rising and falling 

 as the huge breakers rolled under them. 



