SULA. 347^ 



Distribution. Tropical seas throughout the world. The Booby 

 has frequently been seen and occasionally shot on the coasts of 

 India, Ceylon, and Burma-. 



]531. Sula piscatrix. The Red-legged Booby. 



Pelecanus piscator, Linn. Syst. Nut. i, p. 217 (1766). 



Dysporus piscator, Sundevall, Physioyr. Sdllskapets Tidsk. i, p. 217 ; 



Vrf. A. M. N. H. xix, p. 235 ; Gates, B. B. ii, p. 230. 

 Sula piscator, Blyth, Cat. p. 297 ; Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 852 ; Hume, 



Cat. no. 999. 

 Sula piscatrix, Hume, S. F. iv, p. 483 ; v, p. 312. 



The White Booby, Jerdon. 



Coloration. Adults are white with the exception of the 

 primaries, secondaries, and greater coverts, which are dark brown 

 tinged with silvery grey; the head, neck, and back sometimes 

 washed with buff. 



Young birds are sepia-brown throughout, lower parts paler ; in 

 the next plumage the abdomen becomes whitish or white, then 

 the head, neck, and body. The quills are always more or less 

 tinged with hoary grey. 



Bill, facial skin, legs and feet red (Sundevall); i rides grey, bill 

 in young bluish pink, orbital area plumbeous, pouch flesh-coloured 

 (McOillivray}. Tail-feathers 14. 



Length about 26; tail 8-5; wing 15; tarsus 1-3; bill from 

 gape 4. 



Distribution. Tropical seas. Blyth states that this bird is 

 common in the Bay of Bengal, and Jerdon that it is occasionally 

 seen there ; Sundevall says it is common in the Indian Ocean 

 between 10 N. and 10 8., and that he saw one bird in May on 

 the coast of Bengal. It is, however, possible that S. cyanops, 

 which was not recorded from Indian seas by Sundevall, Blyth, or 

 Jerdon, has been at times mistaken for S. piscatrix. Hume saw 

 a large flock, apparently of the present species, close to one of the 

 Laccadive Islands ; and Blyth identified with S. piscatrix a young 

 bird obtained by Layard from the Maldives. No other specimen 

 has been obtained in the neighbourhood, and although, as the Bed- 

 legged Booby is common in the Malay Archipelago, it must, I 

 think, inhabit Indian seas, its claim to a place in the list of Indian 

 birds cannot be regarded as quite certain. 



1532. Sula cyanops. The Masked Booby. 



Dysporus cyanops, Sundevall, Physioqr. Sdllskapets Tidsk. i, p. 218 



'(1837) ; id. A. M. N. H. xix, p. 236; Gates, B. B. ii, p. 231. 

 Sula cyanops, Butler, S. F. v, p. 303 ; Hume, ibid. p. 307 ; id. Cat. 



no. 999 bis ; Butler, S. F. viii, p. 383 ; Legge, Birds Ceyl. p. 1180; 



Murray, S. F. x, p. 165 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 436 ; Sinclair, 



Jour. Bom. N. H. Soc. v, p. 303. 

 Sula melanops, Heugl. Ibis, 1859, p. 351, pi. x, fig. 2. 



Coloration in adults white, except the quills, greater coverts, 

 and tail-feathers, which are blackish brown. 



