74 



CICONIIFORMES 



The remaining species, often called " Boobies," have the whole 

 lower jaw and throat bare. Of these S. cyanops, common in the 

 South Pacific and ranging through the intertropical seas to the 

 Bahamas in summer, is white with sooty -brown remiges, the 

 wing-coverts and the lateral portion of the tail being partly of 

 the same colour ; the bill is yellow, the feet are reddish, and the 

 naked parts bluish. S. leucogaster, extending from tropical and 

 sub -tropical America over the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic 

 Oceans,^ has the upper parts and chest brown, the remaining 

 lower surface, and occasionally the head and neck, white ; the 



bill is yellow, the feet are greenish or yellowish, the bare skin is 

 tinged with red or yellow. S. piscator, chiefly of the intertropical 

 seas, resembles S. bassana, but has slate-grey wing-quills, purplish- 

 grey bill, reddish feet and naked parts. S. variegata, of the shores 

 of Chili and Peru, is dark grey-brown with white head, neck, and 

 under parts, and white markings above. S. abhotti, of Assumption 

 Island, north of Madagascar, is allied to *S'. cyanops. In this 

 Family the sexes are alike, while the young are usually dusky with 

 white streaks and spots ; but those of S. cyanops are white below, 

 and those of ;S^. leucogaster and S. piscator chiefly sooty-brown, with 

 ' Cf. Seebolim, Birds of the Japanese Empire, 1890, p. 212. 



