SULID.« — THE GANNETS — SULA. 



183 



iiO.(M) ; wing, 15.80; tail, 9.00; culmen, 3.50; depth of bill through base, 1.10; tarsus, 1.50; 

 middle toe, 2.40.^ Younger : Upper tail-coverts and tail a.s in the preceding ; rest of the plumage 

 sooty gray, the head and neck paler, sometimes nearly white. " Bill lead-color, with a band of 

 YcUow across the forehead and two yellow patches at the base of the lower mandible ; feet and 

 1( ;,'s red " (W. T. March, manuscript). Young, first pluTnage (77905, Dominica, West Indies, 

 April, 1879 ; Dr. H. A. Nicholls) : Above, sooty grayish brown, the renriges and rectrices hoary 

 slate ; head, neck, and lower parts light smoky gray. Bill blackish. Olde^? : Similar, but lower 

 ]}M-t», posterior to the breast, dirty white, the head and neck sooty grayish b.-own ; bill blackish. 



The plumage of this species is so exceedingly variable as to render it quite doubtful whether the 

 various phases noted (scarcely two examples in a series of fourteen specimens being alike) are 

 wholly dependent on age or sex. Some examples in the inmiature dress have the head, neck, and 

 jiigiilum (!) nearly white, the remaining lower parts ligjit sooty gray ; while others (apparently 

 younger) have the head, neck, and jugulum dark sooty brown, and the lower parts whitish — just 

 the reverse. At all stages it may be distinguished from S. eucogastra by the red feet and, usually, 

 the smaller size, especially of the bill and feet. 



In all adult examples, and in most young ones, the red color of the feet is sufficient to distin- 

 guish this species from S. kucogastra, independent of the shorter bill and difference of plumage. 

 Tlicre are two young specimens " in the collection, however, which, although apparently haying 

 reddish feet (it being, of course, impossible to tell what the color was originally), agree best with 

 S. kucogastra in the size and shape of the bill, and in colors. In every respect they agree (juite 

 closely with a specimen of unquesliono.ble S. kucogastra from Jamaica, in which the feet seem to 

 be reddish, but which in life (so we learn from the label) had them " horny yellow." 



The claims of this species to a place in the North American faunp rest upon a specimen, exam- 

 ined by Professor Baird, in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy, labelled as from Fhirida, 

 and presented by Mr. Audubon, by whom it was considered as the Sulafusca (= kucogastra). It 

 is smaller than S. kucogastra, but of much the same shape and general appearance. The head, 

 ni'ik, and whole under parts are white, the feathers of the sides tinged with brown. The back, 

 wings, and tail are dusky brown, the feathers of the back and the wing-coverts edged with whitish, 

 those of the rump and upper tail-coverts less distinctly. The middle tail-feathers ore hoary gray 

 at the base, with whitish shafts ; the rest become darker, the shafts browner toward the exterior 

 ol' the tail. The colore of the naked paits ore not distinguishable ; the legs and feet appear to have 

 been greenish dusky.* 



Length, about 27.00 inches ; wing, 14.00 ; tail, 8.00 ; tarsus, 2.00 ; middle toe and claw, 3.00 ; 

 hill, about 3.26. 



' The ftverage measurements, given in the same seciuence ns above, of a scries of fourteen specimens, 

 areas follows: 15.04 inches, 8.93, 3.26, 1.07, 1.34, 2.25. Upon comparing these figures with those on 

 p. 178, it will be seen that while the wing and tail are about the sumo average lengtli as in S. kucogastra, 

 the liill is decidedly shorter and more slender, and the tarsus and middle toe also nmch shorter. 



^ Nos. 1963 (no locality), J.J. Audubon ; labelled "Sulafusca, L.," and 21279, "oif Meia-co-shima 

 Islands." 



' If the specimen is really S. piscntor, the feet must have been red in life ; otherwise it nmst be 

 S. kucogastra. 



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