^"'i^is'^ ] Macgillivray, Ornithologists in North Queensland l8l 



mask much darker than in the nestling of either the Masked or Brown 

 Gannets. The eyes soon open, and the bird becomes thickly covered 

 with white down, which is worn until the bird is almost fully grown. 

 Then the feathers begin to appear, the primaries and rectrices being 

 the first, then those of the head and back. These birds go through 

 several stages before reaching maturity. 



No. I stage. — When first feathered, the bill, mask, and feet are 

 black, and the rest of the body dark smoky-brown. 



No. 2 stage. — A lighter brown all over the feathering, with a dark 

 brown bill and lighter brown feet. 



No. 3 stage. — Light brown all over, with a white tail, horn-coloured 

 bill with a pink tinge round the base, legs and feet and bordering of 

 gular pouch reddish. This stage was found breeding and mated with 

 mature birds. 



No. 4 stage (maturity). — Pure white, with dark primaries, light 

 horn bill bordered with pink, and gular pouch bordered with bright 

 pink ; red legs and feet. 



Birds in all these stages of plumage may be seen roosting together 

 in the groups before mentioned. When asleep the beak is tucked 

 in under the scapulars. 



The duties of incubation are shared by the parent birds, one sitting 

 during the night, the other by day. 



Sula fusca (Hemisula leucogastev plotus). — I can add little to the 

 description of the nesting habits of this bird which appeared in The 

 Emu of December, 1910. 



Mr. M'Lennan found this species starting to nest when he visited 

 Raine Islet early in July, 191 1 ; only a few nests then contained 

 eggs, and there were no young. 



When Dr.. Dobbyn and I visited it on 30th October, 1910, eggs 

 and young in all stages of growth were in thousands all over the 

 place. When I again visited the islet, early in December, 191 3, 

 nesting was finishing, as there were very few fresh eggs or nests, 

 though incubating eggs were plentiful and young birds were every- 

 where. This species was also nesting on the Ashmore sand-banks 

 and on a large turtle-infested sand-bank on the Barrier Reef, about 

 12 miles north-west from Raine Islet. 



The young when feeding puts its beak down the parent's throat. 

 They seem able to accommodate fairly large fish ; one large downy 

 young one disgorged a flying-fish 10 inches long by t^ inches in 

 diameter. 



The small, naked young feel the heat very much, and the mother 

 bird shelters them by standing over them during the heat of the day. 

 The white downy covering of the larger young sufficiently protects 

 them from the rays of the sun. 



Fregata arid {Fregata ariel ariel). — When Mr. M'Lennan visited 

 Raine Islet in July, 191 1, he found eight nesting-colonies of these 

 birds of from three to thirty nests each, there being 150 nests in all; 

 several of them contained one egg each — two of these were hatching. 

 The rest of the nests contained one young bird each, in all stages of 

 plumage, from birds a couple of days old to those ready to fly. At 

 Bramble Cay, ten days later, he noted a pair of birds, but none was 

 nesting. 



At Raine Islet in December, 191 3, nesting had finished, but 

 numbers of fully-fledged young birds roosted all over the islet, and, 



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