Vol. xiv.] 66 



Dr. Lowe and myself and Mr. Maynard appears scarcely to 

 be explained by the fact that we obtained our specimens 

 early in February and the latter in May. 



" I append the following extracts from my note-book, made 

 from freshly-killed specimens, and as these were brought 

 home to England in alcohol, the colours had scarcely faded 

 when they arrived in the British Museum at the end of 

 February. My description of the colours of the face is 

 confirmed by the skins preserved by Dr. Percy Lowe, who 

 took notes of the soft-parts at the same time. 



" In the white birds the bill was pearly or opalescent grey, 

 with a band of pink at the base of the culmen j the lores 

 were bluish green or verditer, merging into cobalt-blue on 

 the eyelid and above the eye ; below the latter the colour 

 was more emerald-green. A large orange patch was con- 

 spicuous at the base of the lower mandible, and the bare 

 gular space was black, which extended around the poste- 

 rior portion of the orange patch. The feet were bright 

 brick-red or vermilion, the claws horny white, and the iris 

 blackish. 



" Both the adult, white, birds we shot on the first day had 

 the orange patch on the mandible and perfecty black throats, 

 but when Dr. Lowe and I visited the rookery to photograph 

 the birds on their nests, one old Booby apparently became 

 frightened and tumbled out of the nest at our feet. It was 

 a white bird, but had a few brown feathers on the back, 

 so that it was probably a bird of the third year. We 

 captured it, but let it go after examining the colour of the 

 face, and in this bird the mandibular patch was pink ! This 

 might have been due to rage or fright, as when these Gannets 

 fell to the ground they could not rise, and we assisted more 

 than one of these stupid birds to mount into the air. The 

 white birds on the nests had, as far as we could see, orange 

 mandibular patches, but another white bird, shot on our 

 second landing, had this patch of a pink colour. 



1 • In the ' second year ' plumage, as I take it to be (i. e., 

 the brown birds with white tails) , the colour of the face was 

 very similar to that of the old white individuals, and the 



