OF THE UNITED STATES 199 



these three it breeds, sometimes on trees, which the other species 

 are not known to do. However, like the rest of its congeners, it 

 lays but a single egg, and this is of a pinkish-white, mottled, 

 spotted, and smeared with brownish-purple, often so closely as to 

 conceal the ground-color. This is the smallest of the group, and 

 hardly exceeds in size a large pigeon; but the spread of its wings 

 and its long tail make it appear more bulky than it reaTlylsr Ex- 

 cept some black markings on the face (common to all the species 

 known), a large black patch partly covering the scapulars and 

 wing-coverts, and the black shafts of its elongated rectrices, its 

 general color is white, glossy as satin, and often tinged with 

 roseate. Its yellow bill readily distinguishes it from its larger 

 congener P. aefhereus, but that has nearly all the upper surface of 

 the body and wings closely barred with black, while the shafts 

 of its elongated rectrices are white. This species has a range al- 

 most equally wide as the last; but it does not seem to occur in 

 the western part of the Indian Ocean. The third and largest 

 species, the Ked-tailed Tropic-bird, P. mibricanda or pJicenicurm, 

 not only has a red bill, but the elongated and very attenuated 

 rectrices are of a bright crimson-red, and when adult the whole 

 body shows a deep roseate tinge. The young are beautifully 

 barred above with black arrow-headed markings. This species 

 has not been known to occur in the Atlantic, but is perhaps the 

 most numerous in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, in which last 

 great value used to be attached to its tail-feathers to be worked 

 into ornaments." (Diet. Birds; Pt. IV, pp. 989-991.) 



Of all our various species of Gannets, the one probably widest 

 known is the common Gannet, or, as it is often called, the Solan 

 Goose, the Sula bassana of science. This large water -fowl occurs 

 upon the coasts of the north Atlantic, migrating to the south- 

 ward as far south as the Gulf of Mexico in the winter time. 

 Adult Gannets are as large as a small goose, having, however, 

 the wings and the tail considerably longer. At three years of 

 age they gain their full plumage, which is almost wholly white, 

 the head and neck alone being shaded with a buffy color, while 

 the large feathers of the wings are black. Around the eyes and 

 on the throat the skin-tracts are bare and tinted a deep blue. 

 Young birds of the first year are dark brown, spotted with white, 

 and the nestlings, when first hatched, are nude and blind, but 

 they soon gain a plumage of thick, white down, quite equal to 

 that of the swan, and much sought after by the manufacturers 



