Vol. II, Pt. I] GIFFORD— BIRDS OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 87 



At Tower, Wenman, and Culpepper islands, Red-footed 

 Boobies were sitting in the bushes and low trees both singly 

 and in pairs. In one or two cases a white adult was seen in 

 company with a gray adult. The nests were composed of 

 loose sticks placed in a bush or low tree. On Tower Island, 

 the nests were found all over the island, and two or three fresh 

 eggs were seen on September 15. Only an occasional bird, 

 however, was found on a nest. On Wenman Island, on Sep- 

 tember 24, the majority of the birds seemed to have no nests, 

 but were simply sitting about in the trees and bushes. No 

 eggs were discovered. A young bird just able to fly was taken 

 on Wenman, and one was seen on Tower. 



Three females taken forty miles south of Cocos Island on 

 September 2, 1905, had large ovaries. At Cocos, the birds 

 were very common on the wing and in the trees growing along 

 the rocky precipitous shores. In the forest I noticed several 

 breaking off twigs for nests. On September 13 Mr. Beck 

 took a fresh tgg from a nest in a small tree on a rocky island 

 occupied by a nesting colony of Brewster's Boobies. 



When a bird alighted at its nest or beside its mate, it craned 

 its neck and, swinging its head from side to side, uttered a 

 long, harsh, cackling call consisting of a short guttural note 

 repeated fifteen or twenty times in quick succession. This 

 call resembled somewhat the call given by the Man-o'-war Bird 

 when on the nest, only that it was harsher. At Cocos Island 

 the birds in the trees kept up a continual loud cackling noise. 



When these boobies were asleep or pluming themselves in 

 some tree, a person could walk right up to them before being 

 noticed. They usually straightened up with a startled ex- 

 pression, often uttering a short squawk of surprise. If one 

 continued to disturb them they would squawk vociferously 

 .and try to fly away, frequently floundering about among the 

 branches. 



The flight of the Red-footed Booby is more graceful than 

 that of the Blue-faced and the Peruvian, and somewhat resem- 

 bles that of a large shearwater. When in the vicinity of Cocos 

 Island and of Clarion Island, flocks of Red-footed Boobies 

 were seen flying away from the islands in the morning and 

 towards them in the evening. The flocks contained from six 

 to fifteen birds. The birds fly with the same gentle, wave-like 



