588 Mr. M. J. Nicoll on Birds 



" paler and less in extent.''' It is possible, I think, that this 

 paler bird may be only a female of Z. spadicea. 



SULA PISCATOR. 



Sula coriji Maynard, Contr. Sci. i. pp. 40, 51, 142 (1889). 



Sula piscator Grant, Cat. B. vol. xxvi. p. 432. 



At Little Cayman we obtained eight males and three 

 females of this Gannet in the white adult plumage, and 

 fifteen males and eight females in the brown immature 

 dress, besides three nestlings. 



The coloration of the soft parts is as follows : — 



White adult male. — Iris grey ; bill pale lavender-blue, red 

 at base ; round the eyes green, eyelid sometimes bluish ; 

 gular sac velvety black ; tarsi and toes pale red. 



White adult female. — Iris grey; hill pale blue, base pink; 

 gular sac grey ; round the eyes pale blue ; feet pale red. A 

 character of the adult female is the grey centre of the gular 

 sac. 



Brown-plumaged male. — Iris grey ; bill bluish grey, base 

 orange-red ; round the eyes greenish blue ; gular sac black ; 

 feet pale red. 



Brown-plumaged female. — Iris grey ; bill pale blue, base 

 pink ; round the eyes pinkish ; gular sac, sides black, centre 

 pinkish grey. 



I have compared my specimens with those of S. 

 piscator in the British Museum, but I cannot see any 

 constant peculiarity by which Sula coryi can be separated, 

 even as a subspecies, from Sula piscator. Maynard's 

 coloured figures in his l Contributions to Science ' are 

 totally different, as regards the coloration of the soft parts, 

 both from the Gannets of Little Cayman and from S. pnscator 

 of other parts of the world. The characters by which Sula 

 coryi is said to differ from S. piscator are the black gular 

 sac, and the white rump, tail, and vent, of the birds in 

 brown plumage after the first moult. 



These characters are, however, the same in specimens which 

 I have examined from Mauritius and the S. Pacific. It is 

 true that Cory's Gannet has nearly always a white rump 

 and tail after its first moult, whereas some examples of 



