76 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Genus SULITA. 



Sulita Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. II., pt. 7, p. 123, Jan. 28th, 1915. Type (by 



original designation) : Pelecanus bassanus Linne. 



Mortis Vieillot, Analyse nouv. Ornith., p. 63, April 14th, 1816. Type (by monotypy) : 



"Fou de Bassan " = P. bassanus Linn6. 



Not Morum Bolten, Mus. Bolten, p. 53, 1798. 



Moris Forster, Synopt. Cat. Brit. Birds, p. 59, Dec. 1817. Type (by monotypy) : P. bassanus 



Linne\ Mis-spelling only. 



Plancus Reichenbach, Nat. Syst. Vogel, p. vi., 1852 (? 1853). Type (by original designation) : 



Plancus major = Pelecanus bassanus Linn. 



Not Curtis, Entom. Mag., Ser. I., Vol. II., p. 188, Jan. 1833. 



Largest Suline birds with long Suline bill, medium thick neck, long wings, 

 stout body, long tail, short legs and long toes, totipalmate. 



The bill is long, longer than the head, straight not hooked, but slightly bent 

 at the tip which is sharp ; bill rather broad at the base, but laterally compressed 

 anteriorly, the culmen ridge flattened and separated from the laterals by a deep 

 linear groove extending the whole length of the bill and showing no nostrils in the 

 adult stage. The edges of the mandibles are finely serrated ; the rami of the lower 

 mandible strong and deep, enclosing a very narrow triangular unfeathered tract, 

 which extends linearly a short way down the throat. In front of the eyes and below, 

 bordering the gape, bare skin is present, but the cheeks and chin, save for the narrow 

 strip above mentioned, are feathered. The neck is of medium length and thick. 

 The wing is long, with pointed feathers scalloped towards their tips, the first primary 

 longest, the remainder rather rapidly shortening. The tail is long, about half the 

 length of the wing and more than twice the length of the culmen ; it is composed 

 of twelve feathers, being wedge shaped, the two middle feathers very pointed. 

 The legs are short, but comparatively long and slender ; the metatarsus is more 

 than half the length of the culmen. The metatarsal covering is very peculiar, as 

 figured. It should be noted that the hind -toe is very short in comparison with the 

 hind-toe of Sula and the covering is exactly the opposite. Thus, whereas the three 

 front toes are very regularly covered with scutes, the hind-toe shows a reticulate face. 

 In the genus Sula the three front toes are reticulately covered, whereas the hind-toe 

 shows fairly regular scutes. The nestling with egg-tooth still present on the culmen 

 has the leg-covering as seen in the adult. 



56. Sulita serrator. GANNET. 



Gould, Vol. VII., pi. 76 (pt. xxiv.). Sept. 1st, 1846. Mathews, Vol. IV., pt. 3, pi. 226, June 

 23rd, 1915. 



Sula serrator Gray, Dieffenbach's Travels New Zeal., Vol. II., App., p. 20, (middle Jan.) 



1843, as synonym of S. australis Gould : Tasrnanian Seas. 



Sula australis Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.), 1840, p. 177, July 1841 : Tasmanian Seas. 



Not of Stephens, in Shaw's Gen. Zool., Vol. XIII., pt. i., p. 104, Feb. 18th, 1826. 



Sula serrator dyotti Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. II., pts. 2 and 3, p. 63, Oct. 23rd, 



1913: Tasmania. 



DISTRIBUTION. Extra-tropical Australia. 



Adult male. General colour above and below pure white ; crown of head, sides 

 of face, and upper hind-neck golden-buff ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts and quills 

 dark greyish-brown, paler and more hoary-grey on the inner webs of the quills : the 

 latter have white shafts towards the base ; the four middle tail-feathers greyish- 

 brown with white shafts, remainder of tail white. Bill slate, bare skin on the face 

 slate-blue ; iris silver-grey, feet dull greenish -black with the toes light green. Total 

 Jength 980 mm. ; culmen 89, wing 470, tail 240, tarsus 60. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 



Immature. General colour above greyish -brown, all the feathers tipped with 



