THE PHILIPPINE 



Journal of Science 



D. General Biology, Ethnology 



AND ANTHROPOLOGY 



Vol. VI AUGUST, 1911 No. 4 



NEWLY DISCOVERED BREEDING PLACES OF PHILIPPINE 

 SEA BIRDS. 



By Dean C. Worcester. 



Gulls and terns in considerable \'ariety liave long been known from the 

 Pliilippines. Brown boobies, too, have been recorded by various ornitho- 

 logical collectors, but only one specimen of the red-legged booby, and 

 that an immature individual, had been collected in the Islands prior to 

 June 25, 1910, on which dale, when crossing the Sulu Sea between Ka- 

 lusa Island and Puerto Princesa, Palawan, I saw a large flock of these 

 birds hovering over a school of fishes. I had the captain change course 

 slightly so as to take the steamer near them, but they dispersed before' 

 us. Several individuals flew within long shotgun range of the ship and 

 I liad the good fortune to bring down a fine, adult specimen which fell 

 into the sea but was recovered by stopping the steamer and lowering a 

 boat. 



On July 13, 1910, on which date I was exploring the islands in Green 

 Island Bay on the east coast of Palawan when I was heading for Eeef Is- 

 land, I saw, on the starboard bow, a sandbar rising not more than a meter 

 above the sea, the tide at that time being full. While I was examining 

 it through my field glasses, a large flock of terns suddenly rose from it, 

 and after circling for a few moments settled again. Although the 

 breeding season for most birds was then well over, I was at a loss to 

 understand why these terns should be gathered in such numbers upon a 

 perfectly bare sandbar unless they had eggs or young there, so ordered 

 the steamer stopped and a boat lowered, and proceeded to investigate. 



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