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Genus SULA. 



Sula, Brisson, Orn. vi. p. 497 (1760). 



Pelecanus apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 217 (1766). 



Dysporus apud Illiger, Prodromus, p. 279 (1811). 



Moris apud Leach, Syst. Cat. M. & B. Brit. Mus. p. 35 (1816). 



Morus apud Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. xii. p. 39 (1817). 



This genus, of which only a single species is found in the Western Palsearctic Region, is repre- 

 sented in the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Australian, Nearctic, and Neotropical Regions. 

 The species belonging to it are essentially sea-birds, frequenting salt water and feeding on fish, 

 which they obtain by plunging from a height into the water. They fly at a moderate height, 

 steadily and rather swiftly. They alight heavily, stand in an inclined position, walk very 

 awkwardly, and have a very harsh cry. They breed in colonies on rocks and islands, con- 

 structing a bulky nest of grasses, tuif, and weeds, and lay a single, elongated, chalky-surfaced, 

 white egg. 



Sula bassana, the type of the genus, has the bill longer than the head, straight, elongated, 

 conical, moderately compressed ; upper mandible with the ridge broad, separated from the sides 

 by grooves, the sides being slightly convex, with a slender jointed additional piece beneath the 

 eye, the edges sharp, irregularly jagged; tip acute, slightly decurved; the small gular sac is 

 partially bare ; nostrils obliterated in the adult, open in the young ; wings long, narrow, 

 pointed, the first quill longest ; tail long, wedge-shaped ; tarsus very short, sharp behind, scaly ; 

 toes united by a membrane, the middle toe longest ; claws arched, moderate in size, that on the 

 middle toe pectinate. 



In the article on Sula bassana, owing to a slip of the pen, the young female is described in 

 the English description as being an adult female ; but the Latin diagnosis is correct. I take 

 this opportunity of pointing out the error; for the adult female resembles the adult male in 

 plumage, and is not, as it would there appear to be, spotted with white on a dark ground. 



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