l8o ' Macgillivray, Ornithologists in North Queensland: [isfXprii 



Ornithologists in North Queensland. 



By Captain (Dr.) W. Macgillivray, President of the R.A.O.U. 



Part III. 



Sula cyanops {Parasula dactylatra personata). — 1 have little to add 

 to my description of this species which appeared in The Emu of Decem- 

 ber, 1910, as a result of the visit paid to Raine Island by Dr. Dobbyn 

 and myself a month previously. We then found numbers of fresh 

 eggs, hatching eggs, and young in various stages of development. 



When Mr. M'Lennan visited Raine Islet in July, 1911, he found 

 this species commencing to nest. When we spent a week there in 

 December, 191 3, nesting had just about finished ; only one nest con- 

 tained eggs. We also found this species nesting on the large sand- 

 bank on the Barrier Reef, about 12 miles north-west from Raine 

 Islet. 



During our stay on Raine Islet our attention was frequently arrested 

 by a rushing sound, which we found to be due to a peculiar habit of 

 this species. When returning from a distance they do so high up 

 until over the edge of the island, when they suddenly swoop down 

 with half-closed wings to the nest or young, after the manner of a 

 Falcon stooping to its quarry, and at an equal, if not greater, rate of 

 speed. This is possibly done to evade the attentions of the Frigate- 

 Birds, who ai^e always hovering aloft on the watch to relieve incoming 

 Gannets of their cropful of fish. The fully-fledged young bird has 

 the head, neck, and breast white, mottled with brown, and the wings 

 brown. 



Sula piscatrix (Sula piscatov rubripes). — The nesting season of the 

 Red-legged Gannet on Raine Islet seems to extend from June until 

 December. When the islet was visited by Mr. M'Lennan, in July, 

 191 1, he found that nesting operations had not long commenced, 

 only a few nests containing either the single egg or a newly-hatched 

 young bird. It was just about over when Dr. Dobbyn and I 

 examined the islet on 30th October, 1910, and only a few stragglers 

 were nesting when we visited it in December, 191 3. A few nests 

 contained an egg ; more contained young at varying stages of growth, 

 bvit there was a great number of young birds that had left the nest 

 either still being cared for by their parents or fending for themselves. 

 These, together with adult birds, roosted all together in larger or 

 smaller communities — a habit not resorted to by either of the other 

 species. 



The nest, a substantial interwoven platform of sticks, 8 to 12 inches 

 in diameter, depressed to about i inch in the centre for the single egg, 

 is, unlike that of the Brown or Masked Gannets, always built a foot 

 or more off the ground, on a low, shrubby growth common on the 

 islet, or on some small trampled-down bush. The egg is smaller 

 and more of a long oval than that of the other species. It is white, 

 with a limy coating, which is soft when the egg is first laid, and then 

 easily receives impressions from the nest or birds' claws, but soon 

 hardens on exposure. It is easily removed when wetted, exposing 

 a pale greenish shell. An average egg measures — axis, 60 mm. ; 

 diameter, 40 mm. 



The nestling is hatched out blind, with a pale leaden-coloured skin, 

 only an indication of down on the head, back, humeral and femoral 

 tracts, and on each side of the breast. The bill is shorter and the 



