Order PELECANIFORMES.] 



[Family SULUXE. 



SULA SULA. 



(BEOWN GANNET.) 



Sula fusca (Vieillot), Hamilton, Trans. N. Z. Inst., yoL xxi., p. 128 (1888). 



A New Zealand killed specimen of this well-known species was recorded by Mr. A. Hamilton 

 in July, 1888. It was snot in the Harbour of Napier, and is still preserved in a local 

 collection there. As Mr. Hamilton remarked in his article, the notable part of this matter 

 was not the stranger's visit, but that the species had not been recorded before in New Zealand, 

 seeing that it has been met with in nearly all the temperate regions of the globe. 



Mr. M. J. Nicoll, in writing of this bird on St. Paul's Rocks, just under the Equator, 

 says ('Ibis,' 1904, p. 37):— 



" This Booby was certainly the most abundant bird on the islands. Its two eggs were 

 laid on the bare rock, and were in every case surrounded by dead and decomposing Flying- 

 fish. On Booby Hill it was impossible to walk without touching the birds. The half- 

 grown young were far more spiteful than the adults, and several of them chased us down the 

 hill, biting at our legs." 



Order PELECANIFORMES.] 



[Family FREGATID^. 



FEEGATA AQUILA. 



(GREAT FRIGATE-BIRD.) 



Tachypetes aquila (Linn.), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 182. 



The fine male bird already mentioned by me as having been obtained at Castle Point in 

 February, 1863 (vol. ii., p. 185), is with my original collection in the Colonial Museum at 

 Wellington ; and in the same gallery there is a locally-mounted specimen of the female, the 

 history of which I have been unable to ascertain. 



In May, 1901, I received from the late Captain Fairchild a male, in beautiful plumage, 

 that had struck itself against the lantern at the Cape Farewell Lighthouse on the night of 

 the 15th April, and been picked up in an uninjured state. It was kept alive by the lighthouse- 

 keeper for a few days, but could not be induced to eat anything. It was then killed and 

 converted into a very presentable specimen. 



This " vulture of the sea " has a tropical range, and is comparatively abundant in the 

 Fiji Islands. Whilst staying with my friend, Captain Langdale, at Wakaya, I had frequent 

 opportunities of observing it soaring overhead, singly or in pairs, its beautiful white throat 

 gleaming in the sunlight, and its long forked tail being alternately opened and closed like 

 a pair of shears. It has marvellous powers of flight, and when soaring there is scarcely any 



